Despite the loss, the magic number to advance to the Korean Series for the first time in 29 years dropped from six to five. LG lost to Doosan, the “Jamsil rival” of the two Hanji roof families, but the NC’s loss reduced their magic number by one. Lee Seung-yeop’s Doosan solidified its hold on fourth place in the standings with its first winning series of the season against LG.
Doosan came from behind to win a 3-1 home game against LG in the 2023 KBO League on Tuesday at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul.
In front of a packed 23,750-seat Jamsil Stadium for the Chuseok holiday, Doosan used a strong pitching performance from starter Kim Dong-ju and a focused batting lineup to defeat LG for the second straight day.
With the win, Doosan improved to 69-2-60, maintaining a three-game lead over fifth-place SSG (66-3-63), which beat KIA 4-3, and widening its lead over sixth-place KIA (64-2-64), which also lost, to 4.5 games. Third-place NC (70W2L58D), which also lost to Samsung, is 1.5 games behind and could also be in line for a direct playoff ticket.
The two teams exchanged solo shots early in the game. In the third inning, LG’s Park Hae-min took the lead with his fifth solo home run of the season off Doosan’s Kim Dong-joo, but Doosan answered back in the fourth inning with Yang Seok-hwan’s 21st solo shot of the season off LG’s Choi Won-tae to tie the game. 토토사이트
The final run was a bit of a surprise. In the fifth inning, Doosan had runners on first and third after leadoff hitter Cho Su-hyun drew a walk, stole second, and scored on Kim In-tae’s single. After an intentional walk by Jose Rojas and a single by Jang Seung-hyun put runners on second and third, the LG bench pulled starter Choi Won-tae and brought in rookie Park Myung-geun. However, Park made a wild pitch that was well off the catcher’s mitt, allowing Cho to slide home from third. In the eighth inning, Doosan scored one run on Kim Jae-ho’s RBI double to make it 3-1.
Doosan right-hander Kim Dong-joo, the “Tumokgom” (pitcher + head bear), pitched six innings, allowing one run on two hits (one home run) with two walks and two strikeouts to improve to 3-5 on the season. Meanwhile, Choi Won-tae, the “championship hitman” acquired from Kiwoom to help LG win its first Korean Series title in 29 years, took the loss after giving up two runs (two earned) on five hits and four walks in 4.2 innings.