After six months and 144 regular-season games, the final Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) playoff spot will be decided by a one-game playoff between the SSG Landers and the KT Wiz.
A month ago, it didn’t seem possible that the Landers would be in this position. Sitting in eighth place as the calendar turned to September, SSG went on a 13-4-1 run to finish the season with a winning record of 72-70-2. Despite their incredible run, the Landers still needed a victory over the Kiwoom Heroes to force a one-game playoff. They would get that win, thanks in large part to five shutout innings from Drew Anderson and two home runs from Choi Jeong.
SSG's Choi Jeong went 3-4 with 2 home runs including this grand slam to help the Landers beat Kiwoom and force a tiebreaker game vs KT for the final postseason spot https://t.co/oFBADvFZ91
— Dan Kurtz (@MyKBO) September 30, 2024
It was fitting that Choi got the Landers into the postseason, as he has come through in the clutch all season. The 37-year-old Choi was third in the KBO with 35 home runs, ranking in the top ten in RBI and OPS. He and Guillermo Heredia, who led the league with a .361 average, formed a fearsome middle-of-the-order on a team that didn’t have a single other regular with an OPS above .800. On the mound; it was Anderson who paced the staff with a 3.89 ERA and 158 strikeouts, while Noh Kyung-eun stabilized the bullpen with a 2.90 ERA and 32 saves.
The Landers’ opponent in the one-game playoff will be the KT Wiz, a team that looked like a shoo-in for the postseason just a few weeks ago. Yet a pair of losses to SSG last weekend proved critical, and they needed three straight wins to end the season just to force the playoffs.
The Wiz cannot match the Landers’ firepower, but they possess the best catching tandem in the KBO. Kang Baek-ho and Jang Sung-woo combined for 45 home runs and 177 RBI, helping to balance the lineup around Mel Rojas Jr., who paced the team with a .329 average, 32 home runs, and 112 RBI. The rotation is led by William Cuevas, the veteran right-hander with a 4.10 ERA over 173.1 innings.
The first pitch from KT Wiz Park will be on Tuesday at 5 p.m. local time (4 a.m. Eastern time). The Landers will start Roenis Elias, who posted a 4.08 ERA over 21 starts this season, while the Wiz will turn to Um Sang-back, who struck out over a batter per inning to go along with a 4.88 ERA.
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