SEOUL– The Doosan Bears pounded the Kiwoom Heroes 16-8 to capture the South Korean baseball wild card on Tuesday, keeping their dynastic postseason run alive.
Jose Miguel Fernandez drove in five runs, and No. 5 hitter Yang Suk-hwan contributed four RBIs at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, as the Bears pounded out 20 hits. Five players picked up three hits apiece.
Their 20 hits and 16 runs are both records for a wild card game, as are Fernandez’s five RBIs. Every member of the Bears’ starting lineup scored at least a run, the first time that’s happened since the wild card game’s debut in 2015.
The Bears now move on to play the LG Twins in the first round of the postseason. The best-of-three series starts Thursday at Jamsil, which the Twins and the Bears share as home.
The Twins, after finishing third in the regular season, earned a bye to the first round. This will be the second straight meeting between the Twins and the Bears in the first round. The Bears prevailed last year in two straight games.
The Bears have played in a record-tying six consecutive Korean Series, and are now four wins away from making it seven in a row.
As the No. 4 seed, the Bears took two cracks at winning or tying one game against the fifth-seed Heroes. The lower-seeded club won Monday’s game 7-4 before running out of steam on Tuesday.
The wild card system was introduced in 2015, and the No. 4 seed has advanced every year.
“This was a pressure-packed game and our players did a lot better than I’d expected,” Doosan manager Kim Tae-hyoung said. “Because we were up by a lot of runs, we saved some key bullpen guys in this one. This sets us up well for our next game.”
The Bears scored twice off Kiwoom starter Jeong Chan-heon in the bottom first, courtesy of Yang Suk-hwan’s two-run single after a walk and a double.
Jeong was pulled with one out in the second, after giving up a single and a walk. Facing the top of the Bears’ lineup, new pitcher Han Hyun-hee promptly allowed a single that loaded the bases.
Jose Miguel Fernandez then plated two runs with a single, putting the Bears ahead 4-0.
The Heroes got a run back in the top fourth, thanks to a two-out double by Song Sung-mun.
But the Bears came out for the bottom fourth with vengeance against Han, as they put up a five-spot on six hits and a walk.
All five runs were scored with two outs. First, it was Fernandez and Park Kun-woo delivering consecutive RBI singles for a 6-1 lead. After a walk loaded the bases, Yang knocked in two more runs with a single to right-center field.
Heo Kyoung-min then made it 9-1 for the Bears with an infield single, when shortstop Kim Hye-seong failed to field a soft grouder.
The Heroes tried to go down fighting. Lee Jung-hoo, a hero for Kiwoom in Monday’s game, lined a three-run double with the bases loaded in the top fifth, bringing the Heroes to within 9-4.
The Bears, though, killed any hopes of a comeback with a six-run sixth inning.
Kim Jae-hwan scored on a double steal and Kang Seung-ho then cashed in a run with a double. Park Sei-hyok followed with a two-run single, and Fernandez put the game further out of the Heroes’ reach with a two-run single that opened up a 15-4 lead.
Kang’s seventh-inning single made it 16-5 for the Bears.
The Heroes picked up three runs in the eighth and another in the ninth to make the final score a bit more respectable. They did get 13 hits themselves, four of them by Lee Jung-hoo.
Getting lost in the offensive onslaught was another solid postseason start by Doosan starter Kim Min-gyu.
The 22-year-old did everything but get credited with a win, as he was pulled with two outs in the fifth.
In those 4 2/3 innings, he was charged with three earned runs on five hits. Kim gave up one run while still on the mound, and then reliever Lee Hyun-seung let two inherited runners to score in the fifth inning.
In his postseason career, Kim has given up four earned runs in 16 2/3 innings.
“He has been tremendous for us in big games,” manager Kim Tae-hyoung said. “When a starter can pitch like that, it makes the rest of the game so much easier. I honestly wasn’t confident he’d do so well today. But he kept the damage to a minimum and our batters cashed in on chances.”
The Bears will need more from Kim Min-gyu going forward. Their MVP candidate starter, Ariel Miranda, was left off the wild card roster with shoulder fatigue. Manager Kim said the left-hander hasn’t even touched the ball since getting sidelined last week and is unlikely to pitch in the next round.
Miranda led the everyone in the regular season with a 2.33 ERA and 225 strikeouts.
Source: Yonhap News Agency