The Doosan Bears suffered a bitter come-from-behind loss amid a fatal defense call-play mistake. The record of Kim Taek-yeon, the “No. 0 Rookie of the Year,” also fell through. Doosan, which is now closer to fifth place, is on the verge of losing the game against the Hanwha Eagles in 7,020 days.
Doosan lost 6-7 at the match against Hanwha in Jamsil on Wednesday. After losing for two consecutive games, Doosan maintained its fourth position in the league with 62 wins, two draws and 59 losses this season. The game gap with fifth-ranked KT Wiz, who has won four consecutive games, has narrowed to just two games.
Doosan, which lost to Hanwha 4-7 in the game on the 23rd, put Kwak Bin, the “native ace,” on the starting mound on the 24th to avenge his death. In the game on the 24th, Doosan faced Hanwha starting pitcher Barria with a starting batting order that led to Jung Soo-bin (center fielder), Jarrod (left wing), Yang Eui-ji (capture), Yang Seok-hwan (first baseman), Kim Jae-hwan (designated hitter), Kang Seung-ho (second baseman), Jeon Min-jae (striker), Lee Yoo-chan (third baseman), and Cho Ha-haeng (right wing).
At the beginning of the game, Kwak Bin and Barria had a tight pitching battle. Both teams’ batters continued their frustrating trend without having any chances to score until the third inning.
The first team that broke the 0 balance was Hanwha. In the top of the fourth inning, leadoff hitter Peraza hit Kwak Bin’s first slider at 136 km/h, which made a 120-meter-long first solo home run to take the lead.
Hanwha scored an additional score in the top of the fifth inning with one out, with Lee Do-yoon’s triple to right field and Lee Jae-won’s sacrifice fly ball to right field.
Doosan, which fought back, succeeded in chasing after Kang Seung-ho and Jeon Min-jae with a double steal and an opponent’s wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning with one out and runners on first and second bases.
Doosan, chasing 1-2, reached a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning with a walk by leadoff hitter Jung Soo-bin and a timely double by Yang Eui-ji to the right after stealing second base.
However, Hanwha’s counterattack was also strong. Hanwha came from behind to make a 3-2 comeback in the top of the seventh inning with Kim In-hwan’s double to the right and Lee Do-yoon’s double to right. With two outs and a chance to hit a timely hit to the right, Moon Hyun-bin, a pinch hitter, ran away 4-2.
Doosan succeeded in turning the tables on opposing bullpen pitcher Kim Seo-hyun’s poor control of the ball. Doosan followed with Kim Jae-hwan’s pushy walk in the bottom of the eighth inning with three consecutive batters on a bases-loaded walk. Kang Seung-ho’s timely two-run double and Jeon Min-jae’s successful squeeze bunt turned the game around 6-4.
Doosan posted closing pitcher Kim Taek-yeon at the top of the ninth inning. With 16 saves this season, Kim succeeded in tying the most saves (16 saves by then Lotte in 2006) in a single season for a high school graduate. If Kim succeeded in making the save on the day, Kim could have become the star of the new save record. However, Kim is in danger of being hit by leadoff hitter Noh Si-hwan to right double to left field.
In the scene, Doosan’s defense team made a fatal mistake that was not recorded as an official mistake. After Noh Si-hwan’s high fly ball to the outfield, left fielder Kim Tae-geun failed to catch the ball and moved backward, but rushed forward, so the timing of the catch did not come out at all.
And with shortstop Jeon Min-jae following the ball, Kim Tae-geun, who belatedly approached the shortstop, sent a “short call” to the shortstop to catch it. However, despite the short call, Kim kept running to the point where the ball fell, and collided with Jeon. As a result, the batter missed the ball and the two players fell, allowing the batter to advance to second base.
As the situation where the out count had to be increased easily led to no outs and no outs, Kim Taek-yeon also began to falter. After receiving a hit to the right from Kim Tae-yeon, Kim gave up a grounder RBI to the shortstop to Euro Gyeol at the risk of no outs and runners on the first and third bases.
Kim Tae-yeon was on the verge of a one-out, first and third base hit after a nine-pitch match against Lee Do-yoon. In the end, Kim allowed a 6-6 tie when he threw wild pitches in the match against his successor, Choi Jae-hoon. And Kim, who gave up a pitch after a eight-pitch match against Choi, turned the ball over to Choi Ji-gang and walked off the mound.
Doosan breathed a sigh when Choi Ji-gang stopped the inning with no extra runs on the bases loaded with one out. However, Doosan took the lead with extra time in the bottom of the ninth inning when Yang Suk-hwan and Kim Tae-geun both hit a blunder in the closing opportunity with one out and runners on the first and second bases. 안전놀이터
Doosan put Lee Young-ha on the mound in the top of the 10th inning. Here, Doosan made another fatal defensive mistake. First baseman Yang Suk-hwan missed leadoff hitter Jang Jin-hyuk’s hit to first base due to a catch error, allowing even the runner to advance to second base. In the end, Doosan gave up the winning run after Kim Tae-yeon hit an RBI single to right in a crisis with one out and runners on second.
If Doosan loses at the match against Hanwha in Jamsil on Saturday, it will be humiliated as a sweep loss against Hanwha for the first time in 7,020 days. Doosan’s last record was that it lost to Hanwha in three consecutive games in Cheongju from June 4 to June 6, 2005. Doosan will put Balazovic on the starting pitcher’s mound on Saturday to face off against Korean Monster Ryu Hyun-jin. Doosan, which has moved closer to fifth place, has no place to step down. Attention is focusing on whether Doosan will be able to prevent its first sweep loss against Hanwha for the first time in 19 years.
