Gavin Williams (24, Cleveland Guardians), who had a starting match-up with Ryu Hyun-jin (36, Toronto Blue Jays), showed a terrifying pitching.
Williams started the home game against 꽁머니 Toronto held at Progressive Field in Ohio, USA on the 8th (Korean time), 7 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 12 strikeouts and no runs. According to Yahoo Sports, the 12 strikeouts are the most strikeouts in a game by a Cleveland rookie, 59 years after Louis Tiant’s 12 strikeouts on August 19, 1964. Tiant from Cuba is a “legend” who has won 229 victories in the Major League (MLB) career. In addition, Williams became the first player in franchise history to strike out 12 while giving up one or fewer hits.
According to Baseball Savant, an MLB statistics site, Williams threw a total of 90 pitches that day. He varied his four-seam fastball (52) and slider (20), curveball (12) and changeup (5). The fastball formed at a maximum of 97.9 miles (157.6 km/h) and an average of 96 miles (154.5 km/h) was powerful. His fastball miss rate was quite high at 43% (17 out of 40).
Williams, who was nominated as the 23rd overall pick in the first round of the 2021 rookie draft, is a prospect who received $2.25 million (2.9 billion won) in signing money alone. He was ranked 20th overall in MLB in the 2023 preseason prospect rankings selected by Baseball America (BA). He has been cruising since his big league debut on June 22 against the Oakland Athletics. The season record was 1 win 3 losses with an ERA of 2.90.
Unfortunately, Williams could not win against Toronto. Cleveland lost 1-3, allowing 2 runs in the top of the 8th and 1 run in the top of the 9th when the bullpen was activated. At the end of the 8th inning, behind 0-2, Bo Naylor caught up with a point with a right-handed hit at 1st and 2nd base, but that was it. It was painful to see Stephen Kwan withdraw from the second baseman’s double play in the continued 1st and 1st and 3rd base.
Meanwhile, Ryu Hyun-jin, who started the game that day, was replaced after being hit on the knee by Oscar Gonzalez’s pitching lesson at the end of the 4th inning with 2nd out and 1st base. Known as a simple bruise, his game record is 4 innings, no hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts and no runs. His season ERA was significantly lowered from 7.20 to 4.00.
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