The professional baseball postseason kicks off with a wild card match between the fourth-placed Doosan Bears and fifth-placed Kiwoom Heroes. It is more important than ever to have a ‘first point’ that can beat the opponent’s momentum and raise their mood.
Doosan and Kiwoom will face off in a wild card game that starts at 6:30 pm on the 1st at Jamsil Stadium. Doosan must win 1 or 1 draw and Kiwoom must win 2 to advance to the semi-playoff stage.
It is very important to set the mood at the beginning of the game due to the nature of the short-term game, where everything is poured to win. On the big stage of autumn baseball, if you feel the pressure to follow and reverse the flow in the early stages, it is more difficult than a normal game. Reversing the flow of the game is not an easy task, as even the leading team will do their best to keep the lead.
The best way to take the lead in the early game is to take the lead. Although it has been held since 2015, it has a relatively short history, but in the wild card game, the team that scored the first point wins overwhelmingly. A total of 7 matches (two matches in 2016) were played from 2015 to 2020 in the wild card game. The team with the first goal in 6 of those matches won. In 2018 alone, the KIA Tigers took the lead and suffered a comeback defeat by the Nexen Heroes.
Doosan, who wants to quickly pass the wild card game with a win in the first game, and Kiwoom, who needs to win today and lead the game to the second game, both desperately need an advance point.
Doosan expects Fernandes and Yang Seok-hwan, who were strong against Kiwoom. Fernandes was strong against Doosan this year with a batting average of 0.323 (20 hits in 62), two home runs, 10 RBIs and an on-base percentage of 0.427. Yang Suk-hwan also had a high batting average (0.316), but showed explosive power by hitting a total of seven home runs against Kiwoom alone.
Kiwoom Heroes squad. 2021.10.29/News1 © News1Kiwoom has high expectations for ‘King of Striking’ Lee Jung-hoo. In 14 games against Doosan this year, Lee Jung-hoo made an outstanding performance with a batting average of 0.400 (22 hits in 55 at-bats), 1 home run, 9 RBIs, and 9 walks. His on-base percentage was also high at 0.477. Even in the wild card game, Kiwoom can laugh only when Lee Jung-hoo opens the door for the attack.
Meanwhile, Doosan’s win rate in scoring first in the regular season was better than Kiwoom’s. Doosan ranked 4th in win rate (57 wins, 3 draws, 23 losses, win rate of 0.725) when scoring first, while Kiwoom was only 8th (49 wins, 4 draws, 23 losses, 0.681).
(Seoul = News 1)
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