LG diverse scoring routes vs KT no-hit mound...JunPO viewing points
LG diverse scoring routes vs KT no-hit mound...JunPO viewing points
Blog Article
The team colors of the LG Twins and KT Wiz are similar to those of last year's Korean Series, when they faced off in the second gateway to the Korean Baseball Organization's postseason, the best-of-three best-of-five semi-playoffs.
LG has vowed to play its trademark offensive baseball, while KT will try to break LG's spear with an iron shield.
“We focused on hitting more than anything else during the short training camp, and our hitters focused on maintaining their batting feel,” LG manager Yoon Kyung-yeop said in a statement released by the club on Wednesday after the announcement that KT would be their opponent in the semifinals.
With a weaker bullpen than last year, defending champion LG will have to rely on its bats.
With Detrick Enns set to start Game 1 of the semifinals at 2 p.m. on Friday at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, LG will use three starting pitchers for the semifinals.
Eliezer Hernandez, who throws a fastball, and one of Im Chan-kyu, Choi Won-tae, or Son Joo-young will be in the bullpen to bolster the rotation.
LG kissed the Korean Series last year, kissing the title for the first time in 29 years, as they demolished the KT mound with long balls and hot offensive baseball from Oh Ji-hwan and Park Dong-won.
This year, they'll be counting on the sharp hitting of their main hitters, including Moon Bo-kyung, who smashed five home runs and 19 RBIs against KT, 토토사이트 as well as Hong Chang-ki, the “run-scoring machine,” Austin Dean, Park Hae-min, Moon Sung-joo, and Oh Ji-hwan.
KT prepares for a long fight with a pitching staff that held the Doosan Bears scoreless for 18 consecutive innings in the wild-card decider.
In a major boost for KT, two foreign pitchers, William Cuevas and Wes Benjamin, who both suffered from poor performances at the end of the season, started Game 1 and Game 2 of the wild-card series and pitched back-to-back no-hitters to secure the victory.
The breathing room on the mound was also the reason why Ko Young-pyo, who pitched one inning in relief in the second game of the wild card deciding series, was announced as the starter for Game 1 of the semifinals.
Especially in the last 1-3 days, the team's morale was skyrocketing as they miraculously won three games in a row while playing the fifth place deciding game and the first and second games of the wild card deciding game, where a loss would end their season immediately.
However, it remains to be seen if KT's bats will be able to find their groove against LG's reserve pitching staff.
KT struggled to score runs in the wild-card decider, despite the pitching staff's efforts.
If their bats don't explode and they lose the firepower battle to LG, they could be swept again like last year.
In the season series, LG narrowly edged out KT with 9 wins and 7 losses.
Three starting pitchers, Lim Chan-kyu (3 wins), Enns and Choi Won-tae (over 2 wins), have not lost a game against KT.
After failing to capitalize on LG's starters, KT's bats turned it around late against the bullpen. Five of LG's seven wins have come in relief.
LG will go all out in Games 1 and 2 of the best-of-seven series, with Ko Young-pyo and Uhm Sang-baek starting for KT, while KT will prepare to close out the best-of-seven series in Games 3 and 4, with Cuevas, who is strong in big games, and Benjamin, who is good at cooking twin bats.