The Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) shifted into overdrive in the final stretch of the regular season as they moved into a three-way tie for third place .The Bears defeated the NC Dinos 11-1 at home in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League on Wednesday at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. Doosan pounded NC with 11 hits, including three home runs .Jose Rojas went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and three runs scored, falling two hits shy of a cycling hit (a single and a home run in the same game).
With the sweep, Doosan (72 wins, 65 losses and two ties) remains in fifth place, but has closed to within half a game of fourth-place NC (73 wins, 65 losses and two ties).NC, which was swept by Doosan, dropped one spot from a tie for third place with SSG Landers (73 W, 64 L, 3 T), which did not play on the day.NC opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with a sacrifice fly by Jason Martin, but Doosan quickly tied the game when Jose Rojas hit a huge solo arch over the right field fence after a pitching change.
In the second inning, Kim Jae-ho doubled to center, and in the bottom of the inning, with runners on first and second, Yang Seok-hwan singled and Yang Ji hit a three-run home run to left field to make it 6-1.In the fourth, Heo Kyung-min hit a solo home run, followed by Rojas’ triple and Yang Seok-hwan’s sacrifice fly for two more runs to make it 9-1.In the eighth, Heo Kyung-min doubled and Cho Su-hyun singled to drive in two more runs.
For Doosan, starter Jang Won-jun went 2⅔ innings and gave up one run on four hits, while Lee Young-ha, who came on in relief, pitched three innings of two-hit ball with three strikeouts to earn the win. In Gwangju, the sixth-ranked KIA Tigers added the final spark with a 6-5 victory over the Lotte Giants. Lotte opened the scoring in the top of the second inning when Yoon Dong-hee doubled to right-center field and Noh Jin-hyuk followed with a double down the left-field line. Ahn Kwon-soo followed with a two-run double to left center to make it 3-0.
KIA tied the game in the bottom of the third when Lee Woo-sung hit a two-run double to right-center field, but Lotte answered with a run in the top of the fourth when Kim Min-seok doubled to make it 4-2.However, KIA got a run back in the bottom of the fourth inning when Ko Jong-wook drew a bases-loaded walk, and one inning later, Socrates Brito hit an RBI double to center field to make it 5-4.Lotte tied the game at 5-5 in the top of the sixth inning when Ahn Kwon-soo singled to center field with runners on first and third.
However, KIA scored the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning when Lee Woo-sung singled to left field with runners on first and second. The win kept Kia’s hopes alive as they stayed within two games of fifth-place Doosan .Lotte was out-hit 16-8, but the bats were not as focused and left 13 runners on base. Lotte’s Ahn Kwon-soo, who is leaving the KBO after this season, went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs despite 안전놀이터 his team’s loss.