SEOUL– Since the turn of the century, the LG Twins haven’t beaten their Seoul rivals Doosan Bears in three meetings in a South Korean baseball postseason series.
As the two Jamsil Baseball Stadium co-tenants prepare to square off again in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason Thursday evening, LG manager Ryu Ji-hyun said he believes things will be different this time.
“We’ve had some extra time to prepare for this series, and it should help us,” Ryu said in his pregame press conference at Jamsil. “And the players volunteered to set up training camp at our minor league complex in Icheon (Gyeonggi Province). I believe they have the right mindset.”
The two clubs will play in the best-of-three first round. They also met at this exact stage, and the Bears swept the Twins in two straight games then.
The Bears were the higher seed as the No. 3 team from the regular season in 2020, and had additional days to rest and train for that series. The Twins, which had finished fourth in the regular season, had to beat the Kiwoom Heroes for the wild card to get into the first round.
It has been the opposite this year. The Twins finished third, and the Bears, as the fourth seed, needed two wild card games to knock off the Heroes.
“The Bears had to rely heavily on their bullpen down the stretch in the regular season, and I think fatigue will be a factor for them,” Ryu said. “I think it could work in our favor in later stages of games. But we just have to play our own game and not get too caught up in our opponents.”
The Twins will be without shortstop Oh Ji-hwan, who will miss the rest of the year with a broken collarbone. In comes utility player Gu Bon-hyeok, who has been mostly a backup infielder and a pinch runner.
Ryu said he didn’t give Gu any pep talk before the series, though he did keep a close eye on the 24-year-old over the past couple of days.
“He’s such a steady defender, and I have a lot of confidence in him,” Ryu said. “I am sure he’ll do his part from the No. 9 spot in the lineup.”
Ryu, who has spent his entire playing and coaching careers with the Twins, is managing in his first postseason. He was also a member of the last Twins championship team in 1994.
Can they finally end the drought this year?
“I can’t think that far ahead yet,” Ryu said. “We’ll do our best each and every game from here and on.”
When told of Ryu’s comment on differences from last year’s postseason, Doosan manager Kim Tae-hyoung said things haven’t changed from his perspective.
“They have a new manager over there, but other than that, it’s the same,” Kim said. “It’s going to be nice to win games, and it’s going to hurt to lose them.”
Kim guarded against overconfidence as the Bears ready to face starter Andrew Suarez, who gave up 18 hits in 16 innings against them in the regular season.
“I don’t know how this will play out. The regular season and the postseason are completely different,” Kim said. “He’ll be out there trying to give us his best stuff.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency