Seoul: LG Twins backstop Park Dong-won has been one of the best offensive catchers in South Korean baseball for several years. And on the league’s biggest stage Monday night, Park once again showcased his hitting chops, leading the Twins to their second straight win in the Korean Series with a home run and four RBIs. On top of the home run, Park hit a double and scored twice, as the Twins battered the Hanwha Eagles in a 13-5 victory in Game 2 of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) championship round at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Eagles put up a four-spot in the top of the first, but the Twins flipped that 4-0 deficit into a 5-4 lead in the bottom second against starter Ryu Hyun-jin. It was Park’s two-run double with the bases loaded that fired the opening salvo in that massive inning. Then with the Twins holding a 5-4 lead, Park gave his team more breathing room with a two-run home run off Ryu in the bottom third.
It was Park’s sixth career postseason home run in 50 games, but half of them have now come in the Korean Series. Park had two home runs during the Twins’ five-game victory over the KT Wiz in the 2023 Korean Series, when he batted .313/.421/.688. Park enjoyed his typically strong regular season with 22 home runs and 76 RBIs – his third straight campaign with at least 20 homers and 70 RBIs – and the workhorse backstop missed only five out of 144 games.
The three-week layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of the Korean Series – they earned a bye as the top seed – apparently has not affected Park and his teammates. That includes Moon Bo-gyeong, who had team highs of four hits and five RBIs on Tuesday. He has gone 6-for-9 with a homer and seven RBIs in two games of this series. He had six RBIs in 21 previous postseason games.
Moon had a poor finish to the regular season, batting just .178 with zero homers and three RBIs in his final 18 games. But he used the buildup to the Korean Series to rediscover the form that had him bat .300 in each of the past three years. Moon ended this season with a .276 average but did set career highs with 24 homers and 108 RBIs. And his power stroke is clearly back.
Twins pummel Eagles to take 2-0 lead in Korean Series. Moon Bo-gyeong drove in five runs with a home run and a double, while teammate Park Dong-won chipped in with a homer and a double of his own for four RBIs, as the LG Twins hammered the Hanwha Eagles 13-5 on Monday to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the Korean Series. Park’s two-run double keyed a five-run second inning that erased a 4-0 deficit at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, and his two-run shot in the next inning opened up a 7-4 lead.
Moon’s bases-clearing double in the bottom fourth put the game further out of the Eagles’ reach, and the slugger landed the knockout punch with a two-run homer in the eighth before a full house of 23,750 fans. Bats for both teams caught fire early on this chilly autumn night, but only the Twins stayed hot throughout the night. The Eagles scored four runs on five hits in the first inning but had just one more hit over the next eight innings. The Eagles didn’t help themselves by issuing five free passes, a day after walking six batters.
The best-of-seven Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) championship series will now shift to the Eagles’ home in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul. Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark will host Games 3 and 4 on Wednesday and Thursday, and also Game 5 on Friday if necessary. If the series goes beyond the fifth game, the Twins will host the final two games back at Jamsil on Sunday and next Monday. A team has fallen behind 2-0 in the Korean Series on 21 previous occasions, and only the 2007 SK Wyverns and the 2013 Samsung Lions have climbed out of that hole to win the title.
The Eagles jumped starter Im Chan-kyu for four runs in the top first. Hwang Young-mook, making his first postseason start as the new leadoff hitter, swung on the first-pitch fastball for a single. With one out, Moon Hyun-bin drilled a 2-0 changeup for a two-run home run to right field. Just two pitches later, cleanup Roh Si-hwan hammered a fastball and struck the batter’s eye in straightaway center field for a solo shot that put the Eagles up 3-0. As the inning continued, Son Ah-seop doubled to left field, and Ha Ju-suk cashed him in with a single for a 4-0 Eagles lead.
The Twins, however, answered with five runs on five hits and a walk off starter Ryu Hyun-jin in the bottom second. They loaded the bases with two straight singles and a walk, and Park Dong-won smoked a double past the diving shortstop Ha Ju-suk to bring home two runners, cutting the deficit to 4-2. Gu Bon-hyeok’s follow-up single knotted the score at 4-4. Gu’s comebacker to the mound deflected off Ryu’s leg and rolled toward the hole on the right. Second baseman Hwang Young-mook couldn’t quite make a diving grab, and two runners came home as right fielder Choi In-bo bobbled the ball.
A sacrifice bunt moved Gu to second, and Hong Chang-ki’s single plated Gu to put the Twins ahead 5-4. Park Dong-won’s two-run blast extended the Twins’ lead to 7-4 in the bottom third. With a runner at first, Park clobbered a middle-middle changeup from Ryu and put it into the seats in left field. The Eagles tried to push back in the top fourth, loading the bases with two walks sandwiching an error. Im got the hook after the second free pass, handing the ball over to rookie reliever Kim Young-woo.
Kim retired Luis Liberato on a pop fly for the second out, with second baseman Shin Min-jae making an athletic diving grab over the shoulder, but Kim walked Moon Hyun-bin on five pitches to push in a run that made it a 7-5 game. Another reliever, Kim Jin-sung, came on to put out the fire, and he did just that by striking out Roh Si-hwan to end the rally. The Twins had their turn in loading the bases in the bottom fourth, and they capitalized big time, as Moon Bo-gyeong doubled off the top of the right-field fence to bring home all three runners for a 10-5 Twins advantage.
Things unraveled further for the Eagles in the bottom seventh. With Oh Ji-hwan at second after a leadoff double, Park Dong-won bunted toward third baseman Roh Si-hwan, whose errant throw to first allowed Oh to score the Twins’ 11th run. Moon had more left in his tank, as he smacked a two-run home run in the bottom eighth to round out the scoring and cap his four-hit, five-RBI night. The Twins have scored 21 runs on 18 hits in two games so far.
Reliever Kim Jin-sung was credited with the win after throwing 1 1/3 scoreless innings. At 40 years, seven months and 20 days old, Kim became the oldest pitcher to win a Korean Series game. Both starters got knocked out early in abbreviated outings, despite enjoying success against their respective opponent in the regular season. Im was charged with four earned runs on five hits, including those two first-inning dingers, in 3 1/3 innings – his shortest start of 2025. Ryu, making his first Korean Series start since October 2006, was shelled for seven runs on seven hits and a walk in three innings. It matched Ryu’s shortest outing this year.