Seoul: As the NC Dinos try to push their way into the South Korean baseball postseason with two games left in the regular season, manager Lee Ho-joon will take an all-hands-on-deck approach with his bullpen usage.
According to Yonhap News Agency, riding a season-high seven-game winning streak, the Dinos are clinging to the fifth and final postseason spot in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) with a 69-67-6 (wins-losses-ties) record. They are leading the KT Wiz (70-68-4) by a tiny margin in winning percentage, .5073 to .5072. They have reached a point where every game is the most important one of the season until the next one.
That is why Lee had to burn left-handed ace Koo Chang-mo out of the bullpen, trying to beat the Wiz in Tuesday's game. Koo tossed four shutout innings and struck out nine to help the Dinos to a 9-4 win, but it ruled Koo out of his scheduled start against the LG Twins in Seoul on Wednesday.
In comes Kim Tae-gyeong, who has only thrown 10 innings over five appearances this season and has an 11.70 ERA. When asked how long he expects Kim to pitch, Lee said, "Our relievers will start getting loose right from the first inning."
"Fortunately, almost all of our relievers have been off for three days," Lee added during his pregame scrum at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. "We've usually asked guys to cover one full inning, but today, we may send out multiple pitchers to cover one inning if necessary. How our relievers fare will be the key to this game."
Lee said he had also considered starting his No. 1 guy, Riley Thompson, for Wednesday's game on four days' rest, but the American right-hander said he wasn't ready to go after pitching last Friday. Thompson did not travel with the Dinos to Seoul. He is now lined up to start the Dinos' finale on Friday.
"You have to understand that he threw barely over 100 innings last year and he's nearing 170 innings this year," Lee said of Thompson, whose inning total went from 107 1/3 innings in Triple-A to 166 2/3 innings in the KBO. "He must know the situation we're in now. So once he said he couldn't go, we weren't going to force him to pitch."
While the Dinos are trying to get into the postseason, the Twins are looking to secure the top seed in the postseason with a win Wednesday. Lee, who had been on the Twins' coaching staff until last year before taking over as the Dinos' manager, admitted that he expected the Twins to take care of business Tuesday, which led to his decision to use Koo in relief. Now, Wednesday's game is no less important for the Twins.
"This should be a fun game," Lee said with a smile. And no matter how the rest of the season unfolds, Lee said he has already been heartened by what he has seen from his team. "Honestly, I was impressed with the way our guys battled yesterday," Lee said. "Everyone in the dugout was locked in on every play and every run we scored. That's the kind of identity I want for this team. It doesn't matter who the opposing starting pitcher is. If we keep playing like this, we will get the results we want."