The KBO League is about to open the regular season on April 1st. Now the trial run is in full swing.
One question I always ask every time I play an exhibition game. How far should we trust the test results?
Currently, LG and Samsung are joint leaders with 6 wins and 2 losses in the first place in the demonstration game. On the other hand, Lotte is staying at the bottom with 1 win, 6 losses and 1 draw.
Will the uptrend in the demonstration game continue into the regular season? On the other hand, should we say that if the team performs poorly in the demonstration games, the aftermath will continue into the regular season?
History speaks. that it is not. Lotte was the team that took first place the most times in the history of demonstration games. Lotte has achieved first place in demonstration games as many as 11 times, but the last Korean Series championship still remains in 1992.
Here is an example that shows this most clearly. The time is March 22, 2021 Jamsil Stadium. At that time, an exhibition match between Doosan and Hanwha was held.
Doosan starting pitcher Ariel Miranda. However, Miranda suffered from difficulty in pitching while allowing 5 walks in the first inning only, and eventually collapsed completely, giving up 7 runs in ⅔ innings. Even though he threw a fast ball that approached 150 km, he did not catch a single pitch. In the end, Miranda, who was replaced without being able to fill even one inning, had to face the season amidst worries, “Isn’t it the number one priority to kick out foreign players?” 메이저놀이터
However, when he entered the regular season, Miranda transformed into a completely different pitcher, recording a 14-5 record with an ERA of 2.33, while setting a new record for the most strikeouts in a season with 225 strikeouts, showing an amazing turnaround to become the regular season MVP. Even in the demonstration game, it was ranked as ‘the first place to be kicked out’, so isn’t this the beauty of baseball?
Coincidentally, Hanwha, who beat Miranda in the demonstration game, attracted attention with a flashy defensive shift and took first place in the demonstration game, causing a sensation.
Of course, that does not mean that the demonstration game itself is meaningless. Each team improves their condition through demonstration games and prepares for the regular season through various tests. It is the process that matters more than the result.