Young family helps veteran KBO pitcher get over bad games
KT Wiz starter William Cuevas receives the ball from his catcher Kang Hyeon-woo during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game against the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Tuesday, in this photo provided by the Wiz.
For KT Wiz ace William Cuevas, April 23 was the proverbial "one of those days."
Against the SSG Landers, the usually reliable right-hander was roughed up for 10 runs on 12 hits, including three home runs, in four innings of work. He did not strike out a batter — the first time he failed to put up a "K" on the board when pitching at least four innings since joining the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2019.
Bouncing back from such a disastrous game can be tough for most pitchers, but Cuevas demonstrated his resilience just six days later by firing six shutout innings against the Doosan Bears, Tuesday.
Cuevas struck out a season-high seven batters and gave up a season-low two hits. It was also his first scoreless start since June 2024.
Speaking with Yonhap News Agency a day after the strong outing, Cuevas credited the Boston Red Sox for teaching him how to develop a short memory during his stints with them in 2016 and 2018.
"I just flipped the page and started over again," he said. "I can do that."
Presently, it's his family that has been helping him a great deal.
"The fact that I have my wife and two kids ... I do have a very easy path to not think about that (bad game)," Cuevas said. "It's very easy to forget about it when you have two little ones that are just waiting for you and jumping on top of you and telling you that they love you. That's a huge help."
Tuesday's game helped lower Cuevas' ERA from 5.71 to 4.87. But take away that game and his ERA drops to 2.95 — not that Cuevas had been paying attention.
"I don't check numbers till late in the season, probably September," he said. "I don't like to be up and down mentally, checking numbers. The only thing I look in the scoreboard is the number of pitches. Other than that, I never check stats because that's an easy way to get pretty stressed."
One thing Cuevas does enjoy is the challenge of getting the better of opposing hitters that have seen him for all those years.
Now in his seventh season, Cuevas is currently the longest-tenured foreign player in the KBO. Among all foreign players in league history, only former pitchers Dustin Nippert and Henry Sosa, with eight seasons each, have spent more time here.
Pitchers don't often stick around that long because they get figured out after a few years, and they lose their effectiveness unless they find ways to stay ahead in cat-and-mouse games.
And that's exactly what Cuevas finds "pretty fun."
"It's pretty fun because the same way they know you, you know everybody else," he said. "It's definitely a challenge every year."
Cuevas marveled at how talented young KBO players are today compared with a handful of years ago, and their development has added a new layer to the annual challenge for the pitcher.
"The young kids coming up show that they can do a lot of things that you learn how to do later in life," he said. "Stuff that you learned how to do in the late 20s or early 30s, kids that are 19 and 20 years old can do it now. It's pretty challenging to compete with those young kids."
Of course, some of the young and talented are Cuevas' teammates. Now 34, Cuevas said he savors the opportunity to serve as a mentor for them.
"I just try to do what I wish I could have when I was young," he said. "I wish I could have somebody that could give me advice like I am doing right now with the kids. It's pretty fun to do. They're not afraid to ask questions, and this is a period of my career that I'm loving a lot, and I'm enjoying a lot."
And if he can stay healthy for the remainder of the year, it will make the season more enjoyable.
"I'm happy that I'm healthy. That's the main thing that I always keep in my head," he said. "I take care of my body, try to eat well, sleep well, stay focused on staying healthy and strong. If I'm healthy, a lot of good things are going to happen."