The Doosan Bears have secured their place in the Korean Baseball Organization’s postseason.
Doosan won the visiting LG Twins 3-2 in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Thursday.
With 74 wins, two draws and 65 losses on the season, Doosan pulled ahead of the KIA Tigers (71 wins, two draws and 69 losses) and secured a spot in the postseason regardless of the remaining games.
Upon taking over the reins of Doosan, Lee “The People’s Hitter” Seung-yeop gave the team its first postseason appearance in two years.
With this, all five teams competing in autumn baseball in 2023 have been confirmed.
The LG Twins finished first in the regular season and headed directly to the Korean Series for the first time in 29 years since 1994, while the KT Wiz finished second and headed to the playoffs.
The SSG Landers, NC Dinos, and Doosan will depend on the results of their remaining games.
After pounding out 10 hits and failing to convert them into runs, Doosan’s persistence paid off in the ninth inning.
Doosan opened the scoring in the top of the second when Kang Seung-ho hit an infield single to shortstop after back-to-back singles by Yang Ji and Yang Seok-hwan.
LG tied the game briefly after a pitching change on Austin Dean’s 23rd solo home run of the season to left-centre field.
In the top of the seventh, Doosan’s leadoff hitter, Kim Jae-hwan, broke the 1-1 tie when he reached second base on an error by the first baseman.
Following a Kang Seung-ho sacrifice bunt, Kim Jae-ho rolled a bunt towards first base to bring home Kim Tae-geun, the pinch-hitter.
Tied up against Doosan starter Brandon Waddell, LG tied the game at 2-2 in the eighth against reliever Chung Chul-won.
Lee Jae-won, the ‘big boy in the sleeper’, pulled a high slider from Jeong Chul-won for a home run that landed in the left-field bleachers.
Doosan’s efforts to erase the magic number one were desperate.
In their final at-bat in the top of the ninth, Yang Seok-hwan drew a walk and Lee Seung-yeop brought in pinch-hitter Lee Yoo-chan.
Lee immediately stole second base and reached third on the next batter’s grounder.
He then came home when Kang Seung-ho hit a grounder that dropped in front of the right fielder.
Doosan had runners on first and second with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Kim Myung-shin struck out Austin, Oh Ji-hwan and Moon Bo-kyung in succession to seal the team’s postseason berth. 안전놀이터
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