Thanks to a dominant performance from right-hander Im Chan-Kyu, the LG Twins overcame the KT Wiz to win the opening-round series in five games. The Twins will now take on the Samsung Lions in the second round with a spot in the Championship Series against the Kia Tigers on the line.
Taking the hill for the second time in the series, Im would once overmatch the Twins bats, allowing just three hits and one run over six dominant innings. The 31-year-old Im was named MVP of the series after going 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in 11.1 innings.
Im would be staked to a lead right away in the bottom of first when Austin Dean split the right-center gap with an RBI double. Kim Hyun-Soo would follow with a double of his own to plate Dean, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead they would never relinquish. Though most of the fanfare surrounded the work on the mound, Kim was an unsung hero of the offense over the last three games of the series, going 5-for-11 with a homer and four RBI.
LG's Kim Hyun-soo drove in Dean with this double in the 1st https://t.co/4LlbvdExf3
— Dan Kurtz (@MyKBO) October 11, 2024
Trailing 3-0 in this elimination contest, the Wiz offense would finally put together a rally in the top of the seventh. A leadoff single and a walk would chase Im, then another walk by Hwang Jae-gyun would load the bases with nobody out. With the tying run standing on first base, the Wiz could only manage one run, as reliever Son Ju-young would limit the damage with a pair of strikeouts sandwiching a sacrifice fly. Son would win MVP of the game after allowing a lone baserunner over two scoreless innings of relief.
The Twins would tack on an insurance run with a Moon Sung-ju RBI single and take a 4-1 lead into the top of the ninth. Elieser Hernandez would then put the finishing touches on a fantastic series with a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the 4-1 victory. Hernandez appeared in all five games of the set, totaling 7.1 innings and punching out 10.
LG with the series-ending double play as they beat KT 4-1 and advance to face Samsung in the semi-finals https://t.co/BdBTqgXpz1
— Dan Kurtz (@MyKBO) October 11, 2024
The loss marked the end of the road for the Wiz, who went from needing a tiebreaker to clinch the final postseason spot to becoming the first fifth-seed to advance out of the Wild Card to pushing the defending champions to five games in the opening round. The LG Twins, meanwhile, will advance to play the Samsung Lions in another best-of-five series. The first pitch of Game One will be Sunday at 5:30 a.m. EST.
______
WBN KBO: https://worldbaseball.com/league/south-korea/
Photo Credit: Im Chan-kyu #1 of LG Twins throws in the 1st inning during the exhibition game between San Diego Padres and LG Twins at Gocheok Sky Dome on March 18, 2024 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
