The Doosan Bears and Kia Tigers, who are locked in a tight standings battle, have won side-by-side, and now the two teams will meet in a fateful showdown on the wooden bridge. It’s a de facto semi-wild card matchup.
The Doosan Bears cruised to an 11-1 victory over the NC Dinos in their 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League home game at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Wednesday.
With the win, fifth-ranked Doosan snapped a two-game losing streak and improved its season record to 72 wins, 65 losses, and two ties, closing the gap on fourth-place NC from 1.5 games to 0.5 games. They also narrowed the gap with SSG Landers, who did not play, to one game.
NC, on the other hand, failed to win three in a row and dropped to fourth place with 73 wins, 65 losses and two draws. Ahead of the match, NC head coach Kang In-hwa said, “Every game is important. Especially today’s game and the LG Electronics game on the 13th are important. I don’t think we will know how the ranking battle will be until the end of the season. We will give it our all,” he said. However, NC dropped the 12th game to Doosan, putting pressure on them for the remaining games.
Doosan scored home runs at crucial times to overpower NC. In the bottom of the first inning, when the team was down 0-1, Jose Rojas hit a solo shot to tie the game. In the bottom of the second inning, Kim Jae-ho tied the game with a single, and then came the big inning in the third. With no outs and runners on first and second, Yang Seok-hwan singled to drive in another run, and with runners on first and second, Yang hit a three-run shot to make it 6-1.
Doosan’s bats didn’t stop. Before the game, Doosan head coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “We need our bats to explode to win,” and it worked. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Heo Kyung-min hit a solo shot and Rojas and Yang Seok-hwan hit back-to-back RBI singles to score three runs and essentially put the game out of reach. On the mound, Jang Won-jun lasted just 2⅔ innings, but the second pitcher, Lee Young-ha, pitched three scoreless innings to set the stage for the team’s victory. Lee Byung-heon, Choi Ji-gang, Park Chi-guk, and Hong Gun-hee followed to secure the win.
The third-place SSG Landers, fourth-place NC Dinos, and fifth-place Doosan Bears remain tightly packed, with just 0.5 games separating them. The standings could change in just one day. However, the fifth-place Doosan Bears have a little more pressure on their shoulders because the sixth-place KIA Tigers are chasing them.
The Tigers continued to keep their fall baseball fire alive with a 6-5 hard-fought win over the Lotte Giants on the same day. Despite an early setback for starter Mario Sanchez, who gave up four runs in 3⅔ innings, the Tigers were able to pull out the win as the bats came alive. In the third inning, when the team was down 0-3, Lee Woo-sung hit an RBI double, and in the fourth inning, when the team was down 2-4, Ko Jong-wook hit a pinch-hit RBI single and Socrates Brito hit an RBI double. 안전놀이터
KIA allowed Lotte to tie the game in the sixth, but regained the lead in the seventh when Lee Woo-sung singled with two outs. The bullpen was also crucial to the team’s victory. With the bases loaded in the eighth inning, Jeon Sang-hyun struck out pinch-hitters Lee Jung-hoon and Han Dong-hee.