SEOUL– Taking advantage of their opponents’ wobbly defense, the LG Twins beat the Kiwoom Heroes 6-3 to begin their South Korean baseball postseason series Monday.
The Heroes committed four errors to gift-wrap the game to the Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, while LG starter Casey Kelly tossed six innings of two-run ball to improve to 3-0 in his Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason career. The Twins have never lost a postseason game that Kelly has started.
On 31 previous occasions when the second round had the best-of-five format, the team that won the opening game went on to advance to the Korean Series 25 times.
Game 2 is back at Jamsil at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Before a sellout crowd of 23,750, the Twins opened the scoring in the bottom second on a throwing error by Kiwoom second baseman Kim Hye-seong.
With one out and runners at first and second, Yoo Kang-nam hit a grounder right at Kim, who stepped on the bag for the force out but made an errant throw to first. Moon Bo-gyeong trotted home to make it 1-0 Twins.
Kim Hye-seong wasted a chance to atone for that miscue in the bottom third, when he came on with two outs and runners at second and third. A base hit would have put the Heroes ahead, but Kim instead lined out softly to third baseman Moon Bo-gyeong, who had the ball pop out of his glove but managed to grab it for the final out.
Kelly had also wiggled out of a jam in the second inning, getting two straight flyouts after back-to-back one-out singles.
The Twins spotted Kelly a 4-0 lead after the bottom of the third, with the Heroes’ shaky defense also playing a role.
Hong Chang-ki led off with a single and advanced to second on a flyout. Left fielder Kim Jun-wan caught the ball in the foul territory and briefly dropped the ball on exchange as Hong advanced easily.
Kim Hyun-soo then brought Hong home with a single for a 2-0 lead.
With two outs in the same inning and men at the corners, Moon Bo-gyeong hit what appeared to be a routine pop fly to shallow center. But shortstop Kim Whee-jip and center fielder Lee Jung-hoo let the ball drop in the no-man’s land between them, and Lee made a wide throw home that allowed both runners to score. Kim and Lee were each charged with an error on the play.
Kelly looked to be in cruise control, retiring nine straight batters in one stretch. Kim Hye-seong ended that streak with a two-out single in the sixth, and then Yasiel Puig cut the deficit in half with one swing.
At 1-0, Puig drilled a belt-high fastball into the deepest part of the park in left center, a two-run shot that made the game more interesting at 4-2.
But the Twins responded right back with two runs in the bottom sixth, when some poor defense bit the Heroes again.
Oh Ji-hwan drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on catcher Lee Ji-young’s passed ball.
After a sacrifice bunt moved Oh to third, Moon Seong-ju bounced the ball to first baseman Kim Tae-jin. Oh was running on contact, but Kim bounced a throw to pull Lee from the plate as Oh slid home easily for a 5-2 lead.
Two batters later, Seo Geon-chang restored a four-run lead for the Twins with an RBI single.
The Heroes got a run back on a sacrifice fly in the eighth but couldn’t get any closer against the bullpen ranked as the best in the regular season by several metrics.
LG manager Ryu Ji-hyun said fundamentals made the difference in the game.
“I think the pressure was on our side to win the first game at home, and we tried to stick to the basics,” he said. “We put some pressure on the other team with our base running and defense. I specifically told my players not to rush anything on defense and to pay attention to every little detail. And they responded with some sound baseball.”
In stark contrast to the Heroes, the Twins made some fine defensive plays. In the fifth, third baseman Moon Bo-gyeong made a difficult catch on a tricky hop on a grounder to retire Kim Jun-wan. In the eighth, with a runner at third, shortstop Oh Ji-hwan robbed Puig of an RBI single with a slick sliding grab and a well-placed throw to first.
Kiwoom manager Hong Won-ki refused to blame any lapse of concentration on his players’ part.
“I think they were simply trying too hard,” Hong said. “If we count misplays that didn’t count as errors, we must have made about half a dozen errors. We’ll tighten things up for tomorrow.”
The Twins will have right-hander Adam Plutko on the mound for Game 2.
He enjoyed an excellent first season in the KBO, finishing second overall with 15 wins and third with a 2.39 ERA.
He also pitched to a 1.82 ERA in four regular season starts against the Heroes, with 22 strikeouts and six walks over 24 2/3 innings.
The two-time batting champion Lee Jung-hoo hit Kiwoom’s only homer off Plutko, but Lee only had two other hits in 11 at-bats against the American pitcher.
Yasiel Puig went 3-for-7 against Plutko but with no extra-base hits.
The Heroes will counter with left-hander Eric Jokisch, who started against the KT Wiz in the previous round last Monday and then pitched 1 1/3 innings in relief Saturday while making 21 pitches.
Jokisch had a 2.49 ERA in four regular season starts versus the Twins, though he also served up three home runs, more than any other opponent this year.
Catcher Yoo Kang-nam had the most success against Jokisch, batting 6-for-8. Among three Twins who homered off Jokisch, first baseman Chae Eun-seong is the only everyday player.
Source: Yonhap News Agency