The Kia Tigers swept the first and second games of a doubleheader against the LG Twins in thrilling upsets to move into fourth place.
The KBO played doubleheaders at four different stadiums on September 9 to clear the schedule due to the increasing number of canceled games. Only one game was played in Suwon.
Of the eight teams that played doubleheaders, only two were able to smile twice, KIA and the Hanwha Eagles.
KIA came from behind to defeat leader LG 12-7 in the second game of a doubleheader in the Korea Baseball Organization’s 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on Monday.
Trailing 3-5 in the bottom of the fifth inning of Game 2, pinch-hitter Ko Jong-wook hit an RBI single to center field with the bases loaded. Go Jong-wook solidified his role as the “Joker” by hitting singles in both the first and second games of the doubleheader.
With the bases loaded again, Kia manager Kim Jong-kook pulled out the “Choi Hyung-woo card” he had been saving.
Choi hit a 146-kilometer-per-hour fastball from LG rookie sidearm Park Myung-geun over the right-field wall for a game-winning grand slam.
Choi’s eighth career grand slam came at a crucial time. It was Choi’s first career pinch-hit home run.
After LG scored a run in the top of the sixth inning to cut the deficit to 6-8, KIA regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning with a bases-loaded walk-off home run by Na Sung-bum to make it 10-6, a four-run margin.
In the first game of the doubleheader, KIA turned the game around in the final inning.
Trailing 5-6 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Ko Jong-wook, pinch-hitting with runners on first and second, took advantage of a forked ball from Yoo Young-chan and lined a single to right to tie the game at 6-6.
Kim Tae-gun singled to left field, but Park Chan-ho took a curveball from LG closer Ko Woo-seok with runners on first and second for the game-winning RBI single.
In the top of the ninth, LG’s leadoff hitter Hong Chang-ki drew a walk and Shin Min-jae laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on first and second.
However, KIA closer Jung Hae-young got both Kim Hyun-soo and pinch-hitter Seo Gun-chang to ground out to the infield to preserve the win.
After losing two straight games following a nine-game winning streak, KIA got back on track with wins in games one and two of the doubleheader.
Hanwha swept the first and second games of a doubleheader to extend its winning streak to five games.
In game one, the Hanwha pounded out 14 hits to defeat the Kiwoom Heroes 11-2.
Hanwha starter Kim Ki-joong pitched five innings of seven-hit ball, walking two and striking out two, earning his first win in nearly two years since August 31, 2021, against KT WIZ.
Offensively, Noh Si-hwan led the way with a 3-for-6 performance with two RBIs.
In the second game, with the score tied 1-1 in the top of the seventh inning, Noh’s grounder to second base was turned into a double by Kiwoom’s infielders. Kiwoom center fielder Ronnie Dawson misjudged the location of the fall. This allowed first baseman Oh Sun-jin to cross the plate. It was the final run of the game.
Last-place Kiwoom fell into a six-game losing streak.
The NC Dinos and Lotte Giants split a doubleheader at NC Park in Changwon.
NC came from behind to beat Lotte 6-5 in the second game in front of a sellout crowd of 17,861 fans.
It was the third time in the history of Changwon NC Park, which opened in 2019, that the stadium was sold out, following the opening game against the Samsung Lions on March 23, 2019, and the game against Lotte on April 13 that year.
Down 3-4 in the bottom of the sixth, NC had runners on first and third with no outs after Oh Young-soo doubled to center and Kim Joo-won singled to right.
Pitcher Park Gun-woo struck out, but with runners on first and third, pinch-hitter Choi Jung-won hit a grounder to second base to tie the game at 4-4. LOTTE second baseman Niko Gudrum threw home, but Oh Young-soo reached first.
Son As-seop walked to load the bases, and Seo Ho-cheol hit a two-run double that landed in front of the right fielder.
Lotte cut the deficit to 5-6 in the top of the seventh on Jeon Jun-woo’s sacrifice fly to right field with the bases loaded, but Ahn Kwon-soo was tagged out trying to steal second to third.
In the first game, which was attended by 19,333 fans, Lotte won 5-2 thanks to Jeong Hoon’s game-winning two-run shot in the top of the sixth inning.
NC’s Son As-seop became the first KBO player to reach 150 hits in eight consecutive years with a single to left in the bottom of the first inning.
From 2016, when he was with Lotte, to this year, Son has hit 150 or more hits in eight consecutive seasons.
This is a new KBO record, surpassing the previous mark of 150 hits in seven consecutive seasons set by KBSN Sports commentator Park Yong-taek from 2012 to 2018.
Son also reached 200 RBI this season, making him the second player in KBO history to reach 200 RBI in 11 consecutive seasons after Lee Dae-ho (retired).
Also in Jamsil, the Doosan Bears and Samsung Lions took one win apiece.
After Samsung won game one 5-1 behind David Buchanan’s eight-inning, seven-hit, one-run shutout, Doosan responded with a seven-inning, two-hit shutout of Brandon Waddell in game two to improve to 4-0.
In Suwon, where only one game was played, the KT Wiz and SSG Landers battled to an 8-8 tie after 12 extra innings.
SSG dropped to fifth place behind KIA. This is the first time SSG has finished lower than fifth since 2021, when they finished the regular season in sixth place.
Last year, SSG won the wire-to-wire title, holding the top spot from the opening day of the regular season to the end, and they did the same this year.
However, a recent two-hitter slump has seen them drop to fifth place.
The two teams played the longest game of the season at 5 hours and 2 minutes. The previous record was 4 hours and 58 minutes on May 14 against Hanwha-SSG. 토토사이트