Seoul: After his team dropped the opening game of the South Korean baseball championship series against the LG Twins the previous day, Hanwha Eagles manager Kim Kyung-moon made several lineup changes for Monday's second game. For the first time this postseason, designated hitter Son Ah-seop was moved out of the leadoff spot and will bat sixth. Hwang Young-mook will make his first career postseason start as the new leadoff hitter and will play second base.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Son will bat sixth, which pushes Ha Ju-suk down from sixth to seventh. Ha also shifted over from second base to his more natural position of shortstop. Kim said he looked at his players' recent history against Monday's starter, right-hander Im Chan-kyu. Hwang had two hits in seven at-bats against Im, but both were doubles. Son went 1-for-7.

"Whenever we are on the road, I feel we have to score early to give ourselves a chance to win," Kim said in his pregame media session at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. "Hopefully, our lineup will score enough runs to back our starter Ryu Hyun-jin."

The Eagles had seven hits in their 8-2 loss Sunday, the same total as the Twins, but those hits were scattered and they failed to capitalize on some early chances while Twins starter Anders Tolhurst struggled with his command. Im will present just as much of a challenge for the Eagles. He went 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA in five regular-season meetings against them and did not give up a home run over 34 innings.

"We were not able to get the timing down when he changed speeds with his pitches," Kim said of the crafty pitcher who doesn't throw hard but offers a five-pitch mix of four-seam fastball, cutter, curveball, slider and changeup. "Hopefully, we will buck that trend and get some hits off him."