SEOUL– The Doosan Bears held off the LG Twins 5-1 to begin their South Korean baseball postseason round on Thursday, taking advantage of some timely hits and shaky defense by their opponents.
Doosan starter Choi Won-joon tossed five shutout innings at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, while his batterymate Park Sei-hyok had two hits, an RBI and a steal from the No. 9 spot.
The Twins had a runner on in all but two innings but managed just one run on nine hits. They wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the seventh when trailing 2-1.
The two teams share Jamsil as their home. Game 2 of this best-of-three first round is 6:30 p.m. Friday at the same ballpark, and the Bears will be the home team.
In 17 previous first rounds, the team that claimed Game 1 went on to win the series every time, including the Bears over the Twins in 2020.
The Bears opened the scoring in the top third, capitalizing on the first of many defensive lapses by the Twins.
Park Gye-beom led off the inning with a single off starter Andrew Suarez and Park Sei-hyok moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt.
The bunt attempt popped up in the air, and the runner at first hesitated before taking off for second. When catcher Yoo Kang-nam fielded the ball, Park Gye-beom was barely halfway to second. The catcher would have been able to nab the lead runner, but instead threw to first for the out without looking toward second base.
Jung Soo-bin, the next batter, then drove in Park Gye-beom with a single up the middle.
The Bears doubled their lead in the chaotic top of the fifth.
After Park Sei-hyok’s leadoff single, Jung put down a bunt in a sacrifice attempt. Catcher Yoo’s throw hit Jung’s left arm and bounced into shallow right field, allowing Park to reach third.
The Twins asked for a video review and Jung was called out for interfering with Yoo’s throw. Park was returned to first base.
Doosan manager Kim Tae-hyoung came out of the dugout for a brief chat with home plate umpire Lee Young-jae. After Kim went back to his seat, his LG counterpart, Ryu Ji-hyun, argued with home plate umpire Lee Young-jae that Kim should have been ejected because managers aren’t allowed to argue a reviewed call.
Lee explained, through the PA system, that Kim had only asked for clarification on whether interference is reviewable and hadn’t argued anything else.
All told, the game was put on hold for nine minutes.
When play resumed, Park stole second on Suarez’s very next pitch to Jose Miguel Fernandez, who later moved Park to third with a groundout.
Then facing new pitcher Jung Woo-young, Park Kun-woo drove in Park Sei-hyok for a 2-0 lead.
On the mound, Doosan starter Choi Won-joon allowed at least a base runner in each of the first four innings and kept wiggling his way out.
He pitched around two walks in the first inning and a one-out double in the second inning.
LG leadoff Hong Chang-ki singled for a promising start to the third inning. But he watched the next two batters pop out to infield, before getting thrown out trying to steal second.
A single and a walk amounted to nothing in the fourth for the Twins, which went down in order in the fifth. The Twins had men at the corners against reliever Lee Young-ha in the sixth, but Moon Bo-gyeong popped out to kill that rally.
The Twins finally broke through with Kim Hyun-soo’s two-out single that cut the deficit to 2-1.
Following a walk, the Twins had the bases packed, but the best Kim Min-sung could manage was a soft line drive right to first baseman Yang Suk-hwan.
Defense cost the Twins again in the top eighth. With Heo Kyoung-min at third after a double and a bunt, second baseman Jung Ju-hyeon fielded a hard grounder off Kim In-tae’s bat. But Jung airmailed his throw home, allowing Heo to score and Kim to reach third.
Park Sei-hyok then knocked in the Bears’ fourth run with a single. The Bears picked up another run for good measure in the ninth, courtesy of Heo Kyoung-min’s single.
Kim Tae-hyoung, the winning manager, said, for all the key hits, Choi Won-joon’s scoreless start was “the biggest factor” in the victory.
Kim then praised Park Sei-hyok for his leadership behind the plate.
“He has so much experience, and he understands our pitchers’ tendencies and habits,” said Kim, a former catcher himself. “He’s been a great leader for our young pitchers.”
The Bears attempted four steals and only got caught once. Kim said he wanted to be aggressive on the base paths against Suarez and the rest of the Twins’ staff because he didn’t think the Bears could slug their way to a win.
“We just had to put guys in scoring position, be it with a steal or a bunt,” he said. “We wanted to give ourselves a chance to score as much as possible.”
The game was played before 19,846 fans, the largest crowd at a KBO game during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teams had mostly played at empty stadiums or taken in fans at limited capacities until this week, when outdoor sporting events fully reopened as part of a phased return to normalcy.
The Bears will try to finish off the Twins on Friday with right-hander Gwak Been on the mound.
He will pitch on three days’ rest, after starting the first wild card game against the Kiwoom Heroes.
He was 0-1 with a 4.38 ERA in three regular season meetings against the Twins. He issued 11 walks and hit six batters in only 12 1/3 innings.
The Twins will send their ace Casey Kelly to try to keep the season alive. A 13-game winner with a 3.15 ERA in the regular season, Kelly went 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA against the Bears.
He has a career postseason ERA of 2.29.
Source: Yonhap News Agency