Breaking Hanwha Legend of 'Romantic Ponce'... Ryu Hyun-jin broke the record, now it's going toward Koo Dae-sung and Miranda
Breaking Hanwha Legend of 'Romantic Ponce'... Ryu Hyun-jin broke the record, now it's going toward Koo Dae-sung and Miranda
Blog Article
Even Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon, who is a living witness to the KBO league from the active roster to the leadership, was surprised. Cody Ponce (31), a foreign pitcher of the team, was astonished. Ponce started in a doubleheader game against SSG held at Hanwha Life Insurance Ballpark in Daejeon on Monday, and garnered 18 strikeouts during eight innings, renewing the KBO league record. Ponce was the first player to have 18 strikeouts in a game based on the standard of nine innings.스포츠토토
The previous record was 17 strikeouts recorded by Ponce's teammate Ryu Hyun-jin in a game against LG held at Cheongju Stadium on May 11, 2010. Ryu threw 124 pitches during nine innings at the time, striking out 17 and winning a complete game with one run. This record was evaluated as a difficult record to break again. He needs to throw at least 51 pitches to get 17 strikeouts, as the prevailing view in the recent baseball trend, in which the number of pitches by starting pitchers is around 100, is that it is difficult to strike out 18 if not a shutout.
In fact, only two games with 18 strikeouts or more have been played in the Major League since 2015. However, Ponce continued to display powerful pitching and perfect command throughout the eight innings on the day, turning the SSG batters around. He hardly threw any real throws, and a powerful fastball across the borderline was a strike if not hit. SSG batters' bats were bound to come out, but due to their strong power, swing and miss were poured out. After saving the number of pitches so efficiently, he was able to achieve the milestone.
"I thought it was hard to break, but the record was broken right in front of me," Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon said. It was also a hot topic of conversation in that Ryu Hyun-jin, the record holder, was watching in person in the dugout
Ponce is considered one of the best foreign pitchers of this season. He excels in everything from ball power, ball control, and innings. Ponce pitched 67 innings in 10 games this season, recording eight wins and no loss with an ERA of 1.48 and 93 strikeouts. His hit rate is just 0.170, not a lot of walks, and only on base per inning (WHIP) of 0.85. He has played more than six innings in almost every game, and has eight quality starts (more than six innings as a starter and less than three earned runs).
Ponce is on his way to completely change the history of strikeouts in the KBO league. First of all, Ryu broke the record of most strikeouts in a single regular inning. He has recorded double-digit strikeouts this year, four times, and is already on the verge of triple-digit strikeouts. His outstanding performance is also impressive, but his strikeout pace is truly record-breaking.
If Ponce runs healthy and continues his strikeout pace to a certain extent, he will be able to set the record of 200 strikeouts a lot easier than expected. The previous record of 225 strikeouts in a single season was set by Ariel Miranda of the Doosan Bears in 2021. Miranda set this record at the time in 183 ⅔ innings in 28 games. At that time, the number of strikeouts per nine innings was a record of 11.66. However, Ponce's strikeouts per nine innings this year amounted to 12.49. He was even better than Miranda at the time. He also can digest innings as well as Miranda. If he keeps running healthy, he can expect to break Miranda's record.
Koo Dae-sung, another Hanwha legend, recorded the highest number of strikeouts per nine innings in history with 11.85 in 1996. This was followed by Sun Dong-yeol (Haitai) with 11.68 in 1993, followed by Miranda with 11.66 in 2021. Ponce is currently surpassing all of them. He is breaking this record this year along with Drew Anderson (SSG, 13.77), and Riley Thompson (NC, 11.97), who are the league's strikeout machines.
He will also aim for the second one-point ERA in the 21st century. This record is also set by Ryu himself. Ryu had an ERA of 1.82 in 25 games in 2010. Eric Peddy (then of the NC Dinosaurs and the current St. Louis Cardinals) aimed for an ERA of 1 point until the last game in 2023, but ultimately scored 2.00. Attention is focusing on whether Ponce will be able to make an all-time season.