SEOUL– Hits came fast and furious, as the Doosan Bears hammered the LG Twins 10-3 on Sunday to advance to the next round in the South Korean baseball postseason.
Leadoff Jung Soo-bin and No. 2 hitter Jose Miguel Fernandez each went 3-for-5 with four RBIs, helping the Bears close out the best-of-three first round at 2-1 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
Jung, who batted 6-for-13 with five RBIs in three games, earned the series MVP award after earning 56 out of 72 votes from the media.
The Bears, which pounded out 15 hits Sunday, will now meet the Samsung Lions in the next round, also a best-of-three. That series starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The Bears are now two wins away from reaching a record seventh consecutive Korean Series. They won the championship in 2015, 2016 and 2019.
The Bears scored the game’s first run after just six pitches. Jung led off the game with a single and advanced to second on starter Im Chan-kyu’s wild pitch. Fernandez then cashed in Jung with a double into the gap in right-center field.
The Twins answered right back in the bottom first, thanks to Yoo Kang-nam’s two-out single that knotted the score at 1-1.
The Twins had the bases loaded with two outs later the same inning, though Kim Min-sung went down swinging to end that rally.
And that was it for Doosan starter Kim Min-gyu, as Lee Young-ha was summoned from the bullpen to begin the second inning.
After Lee stranded two runners in the bottom second, the Bears reclaimed the lead in the top third, with Fernandez doing damage once again.
With one man on and one out, Fernandez turned on a belt-high fastball from Im and deposited it into the left field stands. The homer chased Im from the game.
Andrew Suarez, who’d thrown 83 pitches in his Game 1 start Thursday, came on in relief. The Bears extended their lead to 4-1 against Suarez in the top fourth, as Jung rolled a two-out single through the middle for his first RBI of the day.
The Bears blew the game wide open with a six-spot in the top fifth against three relievers.
Park Kun-woo worked a nine-pitch walk against left-hander Kim Yun-sik, and Kim Jae-hwan brought him home with a double to deep right field.
The new Twins reliever Yi Jung-yong promptly issued two walks to load the bases. Two batters later, Park Gye-beom sent a soft line drive to third baseman Kim Min-sung, who had the ball go off his glove as a run scored for a 6-1 Bears lead.
The bases remained loaded, and Jung cleared them with a triple down the right field line. The Bears were out in front 9-1, and it was Jung’s record-tying fifth career postseason triple.
Fernandez joined the party with a bloop single to left that made it a 10-1 game.
When the dust settled, the Bears sent 11 batters to the plate in the fifth inning, scoring six times on four hits, three walks and two errors.
The Twins got a run back with a groundout in the bottom sixth and another with a double play ball in the bottom ninth, far from enough against the Bears’ onslaught.
Lost in the sea of hits was a solid relief outing by Lee Young-ha, who gave the Bears four shutout innings and set the stage for the fifth-inning outburst.
Despite the seeming ease with which the Bears won the clinching game, manager Kim Tae-hyoung said he felt this was going to be a challenging series.
“To be honest, this was a tough team to play against,” Kim said. “So I told the players (before the series) that they should try to go out there and have fun. They did such a great job.”
Kim said it hasn’t been just one or two players.
“Whether it’s hitters or pitchers, they’re all doing what they’re supposed to do in difficult spots,” the manager said. “I think the players have really come together, and there’s a fun vibe in the clubhouse.”
The game had a sellout crowd of 23,800 at Jamsil, the first time a KBO game sold out during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KBO games opened fully back up last week for fully-vaccinated fans. Teams had spent the past two seasons playing in front of empty seats or limited crowds due to virus-related restrictions. Fans are now able to attend games and enjoy food and drinks from their seats as part of the nationwide effort to return to normalcy.
Source: Yonhap News Agency