The third Sunday of May, the joys and sorrows of ‘River 3’ were mixed. SSG Landers and LG Twins won side by side and maintained a joint lead. On the other hand, 3rd place Lotte Giants suffered two consecutive losses and had a two-game gap with SSG and LG.
SSG won 6-3 in an away game against Lotte in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 21st.
SSG, who won the winning series with 2 wins in a row after 1 loss in 3 matches in Sajik, recorded 26 wins, 1 draw and 14 losses, and kept the joint 1st place with LG, who defeated the Hanwha Eagles that day.
In the home game, which was sold out for two days in a row, Lotte lost all of them due to poor scoring. The Lotte batting line scored only 8 hits in the games on the 20th and 21st and only scored 3 runs. Lotte’s season record was 22 wins and 14 losses.
SSG, who won 5-0 the previous day, continued their momentum. In the top of the first inning, Choi Jeong pulled off Charlie Barnes’ 129km changeup and fired a 115m left-handed home run. Choi Jeong-ui’s 8th home run of the season and his 437th career home run.
In the top of the 3rd inning, SSG added 3 points with Guillermo Heredia and Choi Joo-hwan’s timely hits and Oh Tae-gon’s sacrifice fly in the 3rd inning with Kim Seong-hyeon’s walk and Choi Jeong’s hit from 1 out 1st and 2nd base.
Lotte, which was scoreless for 14 consecutive innings, also gained strength in the bottom of the 6th inning. On 1st, 1st and 2nd base, Han Dong-hee hit a 1-run double that hit the fence directly, and Yoon Dong-hee made an additional timely hit to chase 2-4. However, Noh Jin-hyeok and Yoo Gang-nam failed to score additional points in the continued 1st, 1st and 3rd bases.
In the beginning of the 9th inning, Heredia’s 2 RBI double with 1 company, 1st and 2nd bases broke off and scored a key point.
However, SSG could not easily finish the game due to Lotte’s fierce counterattack in the last defensive inning. Finisher Seo Jin-yong walked three batters in a row, causing the bases to be loaded safely, and Kim Min-seok hit a sacrifice fly and allowed one run. This is the first earned run recorded by Seo Jin-yong in 21 games.
Still, Seo Jin-yong did not collapse. Afterwards, Ahn Kwon-soo and An Chi-hong were treated as infield ground balls in a row and led the team to a 3-point victory. Seo Jin-yong’s ERA went from 0.00 to 0.42.
LG beat Hanwha 4-1 at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul and blew the whistle of a 4-game winning streak. In the last 5 games, LG, which has been on the rise with 4 wins and 1 draw, recorded 26 wins, 1 draw and 14 losses.
Hanwha (13 wins, 3 draws, 24 losses), where the effect of the manager change has not yet appeared, fell into a three-game losing streak. In particular, since the match against Munhak SSG on the 14th, they have only scored 12 points in the last 7 games, and are sluggish with 1 win, 3 draws and 3 losses.
At the end of the first inning, LG easily scored first by tying Moon Sung-joo’s hit and Kim Hyun-soo’s double.
Then, in the bottom of the 6th inning, a pinch hitter Park Hae-min hit the card and succeeded in scoring an extra point. Park Hae-min, who was excluded from the starting lineup, was appointed as a pinch hitter when Kim Min-seong was at bat with the bases loaded with two outs, and hit Pena’s changeup to hit 2 RBIs in a timely manner.
At the end of the 7th inning, LG widened its lead with Moon Bo-kyung’s 1 RBI and a timely hit.
In the beginning of the 8th inning, Hanwha Lee Jin-young fired a solo shot, but failed to score an extra point and could not break the losing streak.
Kiwoom Heroes defeated the KIA Tigers with Yang Hyeon-jong 1-0 in a game held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju and avoided a sweep loss in the 3rd consecutive game in Gwangju.
Kiwoom, who lost both games on the 19th and 20th with only 1 and 2 points, respectively, scored only 1 point in the last game of the 3 consecutive games in Gwangju, but the pitching staff held on without a goal and won a valuable victory. Starting pitcher Choi Won-tae won 3 wins (3 losses) of the season with 3 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts and no runs in 6 innings, and Kim Seong-jin, Kim Jae-woong, and Lim Chang-min, who took the mound, also kept a 1-point lead.
KIA had only 3 hits in the other line, and the 5th consecutive win was canceled. Yang Hyeon-jong recorded 7 innings, 8 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts and 1 run, but he suffered his first loss of the season (2 wins), and his personal career of 162 wins was also promised next. Still, Yang Hyeon-jong finished 2205⅔innings in total, surpassing KT Wiz coach Lee Kang-cheol (2204⅔innings) and ranked third alone for the most total innings.
The tight balance was broken in the top of the 7th inning. Kiwoom seized the opportunity for 1st and 3rd base with the luck that Lim Ji-yeol’s missed ball led to an infield hit from 1st base and 1st base. Afterwards, Lee Ji-young hit a timely hit that exceeded the second baseman after an 8-ball battle with Yang Hyeon-jong and scored the final point.
The lowest ranked KT defeated the Doosan Bears 7-3 and achieved a winning series with 2 wins and 1 loss in 3 consecutive matches in Suwon. KT recorded a winning series in about a month after 3 consecutive matches against SSG (2 wins and 1 loss) in Suwon on April 18-20.
KT, who had 12 wins, 2 draws and 25 losses, narrowed the 9th place Hanwha (13 wins, 3 draws and 24 losses) by one game, raising hopes of being in last place.
KT faced off 1-1 at the end of the 4th inning, but Seong-Woo Jang’s two-run four broke out, but in the top of the 5th, Wes Benjamin allowed Park Gye-Beom to tie the game.
However, KT immediately took the lead with an attack in the top of the 5th inning. Kim Sang-soo and Kang Baek-ho hit doubles in succession to pull Choi Won-joon off the mound, and Kim Min-hyeok also hit an RBI double against pitcher Lee Hyung-beom.
KT, who brought the flow, put a wedge in the game with Jang Seong-woo hitting 2 RBIs at the bottom of the 7th inning with 2 bases loaded.
Jang Seong-woo, who was placed in the 5th batting order, became the main player in the victory by swinging a hard hit with 2 hits in 4 at-bats (1 home run), 4 RBIs and 1 run. 4th hitter Park Byeong-ho also showed a good sense of hitting with 3 hits, 1 walk, 1 RBI and 1 run in 3 at-bats.
In the Changwon game, which was the only overtime game of the day, the Samsung Lions beat the NC Dinos 2-1.
Lee Jae-hak, who started the season for the first time, pitched well with 2 walks, 4 strikeouts and no runs in 6 innings.
However, the Samsung batting line, which was tied to Lee Jae-hak with no hits, pierced the blood after replacing the NC pitcher. Koo Ja-wook, who played in his 177th and 1000th game of all time, got on base with a double against pitcher Kim Jin-ho, who had changed in the top of the 7th inning. Koo Ja-wook headed for third base after Kim Jin-ho’s wild throw, and stepped on the groove when Jose Pirella’s infield grounder, balancing the score 1-1.먹튀검증
The win or loss was decided at the beginning of the 12th inning. NC left fielder Kwon Hee-dong failed to catch Gong Min-gyu’s left-center batted ball, and while the ball flowed, Gong Min-gyu headed for third base. The official record is Gong Min-kyu’s triple. Afterwards, Kang Min-ho hit a sacrifice fly to the center fielder to score the winning goal.
Oh Seung-hwan, who took the mound for relief at the end of the 11th inning, recorded 3 balls on 4 balls in 2 innings, but kept it scoreless and recorded his 2nd win (2 losses, 5 saves) of the season.
