CHANGWON, South Korea, - The NC Dinos defeated the SSG Landers 7-6 to complete a three-game sweep of their South Korean baseball postseason series Wednesday.
Jason Martin smacked a go-ahead, three-run home run to key a four-run second inning at Changwon NC Park in the southeastern town of Changwon, and five Dinos relievers held the Landers to a run over the final seven innings in Game 3 of the first round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.
The Landers bowed out of their Korean Series title defense without winning a game in this postseason.
The Dinos will now face the No. 2 seed KT Wiz in the best-of-five second round starting Monday at the Wiz home of Suwon, just south of Seoul.
The Wiz won the 2021 Korean Series title, a year after the Dinos won their first championship.
For the third straight game in this series, the Dinos drew first blood, thanks to a pair of two-out hits.
The Dinos opened the game with two straight singles off starter Oh Won-seok, but Park Kun-woo almost bounced into a triple play after hitting a sharp grounder to third base.
After Park barely beat the throw at first base, Martin kept the inning alive with a single, putting runners at the corners.
Martin stole second base, and Kwon Hui-dong brought both runners home with a single to right field.
Seo Ho-cheol followed up with a double to left-center that cashed in Kwon, whose head-first slide home was just ahead of catcher Kim Min-sik's tag.
But the Landers rallied with a huge second inning, taking the lead for the first time this series.
They loaded the bases with two outs against starter Tanner Tully, on two singles and a walk. Guillermo Heredia drew a bases-loaded walk that pushed in a run to make it 3-1.
Choi Jeong then flipped the game on its head with one swing of the bat, launching his first career postseason grand slam to give the Landers a 5-3 lead.
It was Choi's 13th career postseason homer, putting him in a tie for second place all time.
But the lead didn't even last half an inning.
After Oh hit a batter and walked another to put two men on, the Landers summoned Noh Kyung-eun from the bullpen.
Park Kun-woo greeted him with an RBI single to bring the Dinos within a run at 5-4. Jason Martin then put the Dinos back on top with a towering three-run homer to the right field.
Now down 7-5, the Landers tried to push back in the top third, once again loading the bases on three walks - two by Tully and one by reliever Lee Jae-hak.
But no grand slam came this time, as pinch hitter Choi Ji-hoon bounced into an inning-ending, 6-4-3 double play.
The Landers got a run back in the top fourth, with Han Yoo-seom's double off the top of the left-center fence cashing in Choi Jeong, who'd drawn a two-out walk.
Things quieted down over the next few innings, as the back-and-forth affair turned into a battle of the bullpens. Both teams stranded multiple runners to keep this a one-run game, with the Landers unable to capitalize on two walks in the seventh and the Dinos wasting a bases-loaded chance in the eighth when Martin grounded into a double play.
Nursing a one-run lead in the ninth, the Dinos summoned their slumping closer Lee Yong-chan, who'd allowed two runs in his two earlier outings of the series.
The veteran right-hander, though, was more effective this time, striking out two while retiring the side in order to lock down the narrow victory and punctuate the four-hour marathon.
Left-handed reliever Kim Young-kyu was voted the series MVP after earning a win and two holds while pitching in all three games. He went 1 1/3 shutout innings in Wednesday's win.
Kim collected 37 out of 78 votes cast by media, with Martin finishing a distant second with 18 votes. Martin batted .333 with a team-best five RBIs in three games.
Source: Yonhap News Agency