For the second time in three years, the LG Twins are the champions of South Korean baseball.
The Twins knocked off the Hanwha Eagles 4-1 on Friday to win the Korean Series in five games at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon.
This is the Twins' fourth Korea Baseball Organization championship, following wins in 1990, 1994 and 2023.
The Twins won the first two games of this best-of-seven series at home, Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, on Sunday and Monday. They dropped the third game in Daejeon in heartbreaking fashion on Wednesday, giving up six runs in the bottom eighth for a 7-3 loss. But less than 24 hours later, the Twins returned the favor by scoring six times in the top ninth to win Game 4 by 7-4, setting the stage for Friday's clincher.
Starter Anders Tolhurst threw seven innings of one-run ball, and Kim Hyun-soo, the Korean Series MVP, had three hits and knocked in two runs to close out the series.
The Twins had the best record in the regular season at 85-56-3 (wins-losses-ties) and earned a bye to the Korean Series. Teams with the best regular-season record have won the Korean Series about 85 percent of the time so far.
The Eagles, who finished second in the regular season, were trying to win their first league title since 1999. This was their first postseason appearance since 2018 and their first trip to the Korean Series since 2006.
The Twins opened the scoring just eight pitches into the game against starter Moon Dong-ju. Shin Min-jae hit a one-out double to left field, and then Kim Hyun-soo brought him home with a single down the left field line for a 1-0 lead.
Then in a surprise move, Moon was taken out of the game after that first inning, during which the right-hander did not flash his usual fastball velocity. Moon was seen swinging his right arm repeatedly during warmup, apparently due to some shoulder discomfort, but the Eagles said Moon had not suffered any injury.
The game suddenly turned into a bullpen day for the Eagles, with rookie right-hander Jeong Woo-joo being the first one out after Moon.
After Jeong pitched a scoreless top second, the Eagles got the tying run off Tolhurst in the bottom half of that inning thanks to Lee Won-suk's RBI groundout with the bases loaded.
The Twins also loaded the bases in the top third, with a single and two straight walks against Jeong. But the Twins, too, also managed just one run from that opportunity, with Oh Ji-hwan's sacrifice fly giving them a 2-1 lead.
The Twins kept creating traffic on the base paths but couldn't add to their lead. They stranded two men in the fourth and failed to score after loading the bases with one out in the fifth.
The Twins finally tacked on a run in the sixth, as Kim Hyun-soo singled off Cho Dong-uk -- the Eagles' fifth pitcher of the game -- to cash in Hong Chang-ki from second for a 3-1 lead.
Tolhurst labored through some extended early innings but managed to hold the Eagles to a run through five innings. After walking Luis Liberato with one out in the third, Tolhurst got Moon Hyun-bin to hit into a double play and proceeded to retire the next 10 batters in a row.
Chae Eun-seong's single to lead off the seventh ended that streak, but Tolhurst got Ha Ju-suk to ground into a double play before striking out Choi Jae-hoon with a fastball.
The Eagles tried to mount a rally in the bottom eighth with pinch hitter Hwang Young-mook singling off reliever Kim Jin-sung. But another pinch hitter, Choi In-ho, popped out to shortstop, and Son Ah-seop grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
The Twins then grabbed a 4-1 lead in the top ninth with Hong Chang-ki's sacrifice fly, and the cushion was big enough for closer You Young-chan, who pitched around a two-out single to record the title-winning save. (Yonhap)
