It was a heated weekend in Jamsil. The LG Twins had the last laugh. LG swept the Doosan Bears to complete a sweep of the series.
The LG Twins swept the Doosan Bears 15-3 in their 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League home game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sunday.
With the win, LG wrapped up this weekend’s three-game series with Doosan with a 2-1 record and a sweep. LG won the first game of the three-game 메이저놀이터 weekend series 7-4 on April 16. The team came out hot, including a bench-clearing outbreak. But Doosan was no slouch either. The day before, Doosan snapped a three-game losing streak with a 7-4 victory in the best-of-seven series.
And in the best-of-three series, it was LG who came out on top again. With 39 wins, two ties, and 24 losses, LG is just one win away from the 40-win mark. Their win-loss margin is +15. Doosan, on the other hand, is back to 30 wins, 1 draw, and 30 losses, with a 5% win percentage. LG holds a 5-2 head-to-head advantage against Doosan this season.
LG welcomed back to the starting lineup starting catcher Park Dong-won, who had been suffering from enteritis the day before. Ahead of the game, LG head coach Yeom Kyung-yeop said, “Park Dong-won is fine now. It was the right time to give him a rest,” he said, adding, “(Opposing starter) Jang Won-jun has a good two-seam fastball and good pitches. We need to take advantage of his mistakes and high balls.” “Lee Jae-won is ready to break out. Heo Do-hwan had a little bit of a break yesterday. Kelly pitched a quality start (six innings, three earned runs or less) the day before, but I wouldn’t call him an ace.”
In his pregame briefing, Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop said, “Lee Young-ha is also on standby today. If he pitches today, it will be his third straight start, but he only threw four pitches the day before. He still has some energy left, so he’ll be ready to go.” Lee continued, “I think Chung is still carrying some pressure. I’m waiting for him to get better. In the meantime, I hope Lee Young-ha can take some of the pressure off him.” Regarding Jang Won-jun, Lee said, “I thought about pitching five innings in the previous game, but I threw six innings because I had too few pitches. It’s been a long time since he’s pitched on four days’ rest.” “He’s an experienced veteran. He’s an experienced veteran, and I’m sure he was able to control his condition during the rest period.”
Doosan veteran Jang Won-jun’s collapse ‘7 runs in 1⅓ innings’… It was the moment when the game actually went to LG.
However, Jang Won-jun’s confidence was shattered. In the top of the first inning, LG starter Plutko got a triple play (Jung Soo-bin struck out, Kim Jae-hwan grounded out, and Yang Suk-hwan struck out), and in the bottom of the inning, LG took a two-run lead. After leadoff hitter Hong Chang-ki singled to right, Park Hae-min laid down a sacrifice bunt, but pitcher Jang Won-joon’s throw to first fell behind, allowing Hong to round third and rush home. (1-0) Kim Hyun-soo followed with a grounder to second, but Austin hit a double to left-center to bring home Park Hae-min from third. (2-0) Jang Won-joon ended the first inning on a high note, striking out Oh Ji-hwan on a six-pitch count and Park Dong-won on an eight-pitch count.
However, he couldn’t get over the hump in the second inning. In the bottom of the first, Lee Jae-won led off with a double over the left field fence. Kim Min-sung followed with a single to left field, scoring Lee Jae-won to make the score 3-0.
Doosan got a run back in the top of the next inning. Yang Yang-ji led off with a double to left and came home two batters later on Park Kye-beom’s single to right. Hong Chang-ki wasted no time in throwing home after the pitch, but Yang Ji made a focused play at the plate and scored first. The LG bench conducted a video review, but the call was not overturned.
Austin’s ‘inside the park’ home run sent the LG fans at Jamsil Stadium into a frenzy.
LG’s batters continued to attack Jang Won-jun. Hong Chang-ki doubled to left-center to put runners on second and third, followed by Park Hae-min’s single to right-center and Kim Hyun-soo’s two-run double to right-center. The score was quickly up to 6-0, and the highlight of the game came. The next batter was Austin. Dusin pulled Jang Won-jun and sent Lee Hyung-beom to the mound. With a favorable 3-1 pitch count, Austin took five pitches. The ball had a low trajectory and was quickly headed toward center field, where Doosan center fielder Jung Soo-bin tried to make a flying catch, but failed and the ball fell behind him. Austin stepped on first base and started sprinting for home. With Kim Hyun-soo at second base, Austin rounded third base and made a daring dive for home. In the end, Doosan’s replay showed that Austin’s feet were faster than Yang’s mitt. It was an inside-the-park home run (ground ball). It was Austin’s first inside-the-park home run. It was the second inside-the-park home run in the KBO this season and the 92nd inside-the-park home run of his KBO career.
LG’s firepower continued. Oh Ji-hwan doubled to left-center and came home on Park Dong-won’s single to left. The score was 9-1. It was a big inning for LG, as they scored seven runs in the bottom of the second inning with eight consecutive hits from Lee Jae-won, the No. 8 hitter, to Park Dong-won, the No. 6 hitter.
In the end, it’s no exaggeration to say that the game was actually decided here. With the firepower backing him up, Plutko continued to pitch solidly. In the top of the third, he gave up a leadoff single to Kim Jae-hwan, but got Yang Seok-hwan to ground into a double play. In the fourth, he retired the side in order with two strikeouts. In the fifth, he gave up a leadoff single to Park Kye-beom, but retired the next three batters. Plutko took the mound again in the sixth and gave up a leadoff single to Yang Ji, but threw out Hong Sung-ho at second base.
LG scored another run in the bottom of the fourth. Leadoff hitter Austin hit an infield single in front of the pitcher and took advantage of a throwing error to move to second. After moving to third on Oh’s grounder to first, Austin came home on Park Dong-won’s sacrifice fly to right field.(10-1) In the bottom of the fifth, LG added two more runs. After leadoff hitter Kim Min-sung singled up the middle, Lee Hyung-beom replaced Lee Byung-heon on the mound. However, he gave up back-to-back walks to Hong Chang-ki and Park Hae-min to load the bases, and Kim Hyun-soo hit a two-run double to center field. The score was 12-1.
A collision between LG’s Lee Ju-hyung and Doosan’s Park Kye-beom at second base resulted in a “bruise exchange”… and two runs for LG’s second pitcher Jung Woo-young, who was nervous despite the big win.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, a dizzying situation occurred. Two batters later, Lee Ju-hyung hit a single to right-center field and ran to second base. As he slid toward second base, he collided with Doosan shortstop Park Kye-beom. Park fell to the ground and was unable to get up for a while. Eventually, Park was taken out of the game, with Lee Yoo-chan moving to second base and Kwon Min-seok moving to shortstop. “He suffered a bruised left shoulder in the collision, so he was replaced as a protective measure,” a Doosan official explained.
In the seventh inning, Plutko took the mound and gave up a leadoff double to Kang Seung-ho. A batter later, he gave up a single to Heo Kyung-min, but retired Kwon 안전놀이터추천 Min-seok and Kim Dae-woo in order. Plutko finished the day with seven innings, seven hits, nine strikeouts, no walks and one run (one earned). He threw 93 pitches. He had an even mix of pitches: 41 fastballs, 20 sliders, 16 curves, 11 cutters, and five changeups. His fastball topped out at 148 mph, his cutter at 142 mph, his changeup at 136 mph, his slider at 129 mph, and his curve at 125 mph. Won nine games (undefeated).
LG made it 13-1 in the bottom of the seventh on Moon Bo-kyung’s RBI single. Doosan scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning against LG reliever Jung Woo-young. The Doosan fans, who were watching the game from the third base side, cheered loudly and raised the atmosphere. Two batters later, Jang Seung-hyun and Hong Seong-ho followed with back-to-back singles, and Kang Seung-ho followed with a single to left. Lee Yoo-chan followed with an infield single, bringing home Hong Seong-ho from third base to make it a two-run game. Then, with runners on first and third in the bottom of the eighth, Moon Sung-joo’s infield single scored Kim Min-sung, and Shin Min-jae’s grounder to second brought home Lee Joo-hyung.(15-3) In the end, the game ended with a complete victory for LG.
Doosan starter Jang Won-jun suffered his first loss of the season after three straight wins, allowing seven runs (six earned) on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. He threw a total of 50 pitches, including 30 two-seam fastballs, 15 sliders, four changeups and one fastball. His two-seam fastball touched 140 kilometers.
On the day, LG recorded a hit by all of its starters (No. 1059 in the KBO, No. 14 in the KBO this season, and No. 2 in the LG season). Austin was the top performer at the plate for the LG offense, which pounded out 19 hits, with four hits (one home run), one walk, three RBIs, and two runs scored. Hong Chang-ki, Park Hae-min, Kim Hyun-soo, Moon Bo-kyung, Kim Min-sung, and Lee Ju-hyung (pinch-hitting) also recorded multi-hit games. Jung Woo-young, who took the mound after Plutko, struggled with five hits and two runs (two earned) in one inning. Choi Dong-hwan saved the ninth inning. The 12-hit Doosan offense was led by multi-hit performances from Kim Jae-hwan, Yang Ji, Kang Seung-ho and Park Kye-beom. After Jang Won-jun, Lee Hyung-beom (4 runs in 2⅔ innings), Lee Byung-heon (1 run in ⅔ innings), Park Jung-soo (1 run in 2⅓ innings), and Kim Jung-woo (2 runs in 1 inning) took the mound.
After the game, ‘Seungjang’ coach Yoon Kyung-yeop said, “Plutko pitched his best game as the pillar of the starting lineup. In the offense, the top and bottom of the lineup performed evenly, which made it easy for us to win the game. I would like to praise the players for their good performance during the week. Thanks to the hot support of the fans, we were able to achieve a good record of 5-1 this week. Thank you very much.”