Kiwoom and KT, who had two wins in each of the 1st to 4th games, played 5 games at Gocheok Dome on the 22nd.
Kiwoom Heroes and kt wiz, who could not finish the playoffs in Suwon, will return to Gocheok Dome, where they started in this year’s pre-PO round, and play a ‘final game’.
4th place kt, who played a wild card game against Kiwoom, who went straight to Jun-PO in 3rd place in the regular season, faced 2 wins and 2 losses in the 1st to 4th games, and 5 out of 5 3 victory at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul on the 22nd at 2 o’clock
This is the fifth round of the semi-PO, following 2005 (Hanwha Eagles-SK Wyverns), 2010 (Doosan Bears-Lotte Giants), 2013 (Doosan Heroes-Nexen), and 2017 (NC Dinos-Lotte Giants) 5th.
The two teams, who shared one win each at Kiwoom’s home Gocheok Dome, also picked up one win each in KT’s hometown of Suwon.
Returning to Gocheok Dome, Kiwoom and KT prepare for an all-out war.
From the starting pitcher, both teams took the best card they could play.
Kiwoom’s starting lineup is Woo-jin Ahn’s ‘fireballer’.
Ahn Woo-jin posted a 15-8 record with a 2.11 ERA and 224 strikeouts in the regular season this year.
He took first place in ERA and strikeouts, and his wins were tied for second place.
The regular season game against kt was 4 games, 2 wins, 1 loss, and an ERA of 5.11, but in the first game of the semi-PO on the 16th, he pitched a counterattack with 6 innings, 3 hits and 9 strikeouts.
In fact, in the regular season against kt, on July 28, he scored 8 runs in 5└ innings, 8 hits, and his ERA increased, and he played well in the other 3 games.
Ahn Woo-jin was replaced after throwing only 88 balls due to a blister on his finger in the first game of the pre-PO round.
Five days away, the fingers were completely healed.
Director Hong Won-ki of Kiwoom thought of ‘Ahn Woo-jin’s bullpen input’ in Game 4, but the timing failed.
Instead, it can be used as the ‘best starting card’ in Game 5.
The KT starter is Wes Benjamin, who throws a sharp slider.
Benjamin, who has played for kt since June on behalf of William Cuevas, has been active in the regular season with a 5-4 record with a 2.70 ERA. In the postseason, he went scoreless in 8 innings.
Benjamin, who came on in the wild card game against the KIA Tigers and pitched a tidy one inning with three strikeouts, started the second game of the semi-PO on the 17th and fought back with seven innings, five hits , no runs and nine strikeouts.
Benjamin was also very strong in the regular season with a 0.78 ERA in 4 games and 2 wins against Kiwoom.
Woo-jin Ahn and Benjamin played a starting game once in the regular season.
In the game on July 28, Ahn Woo-jin pitched the worst pitch of the season (8 hits and 8 runs in 5⅔ innings), and Benjamin got the win with a good pitch in 6 innings, 4 hits and 2 runs (no- .self-inflicted).
In the second round of the semi-PO, Ahn Woo-jin aims to lust for snow, and Benjamin aims to become the ‘Hero of Autumn’.
Both teams aim their bats at the opposing aces.
Park Byeong-ho (kt, 0.533) came first in terms of batting average in the first to fourth rounds of this pre-PO round, and Lee Jung-hoo (Kiwoom, 0.438) came second.
The ‘blowing competition between the near-elderly and the younger’, foreshadowed from the beginning of Jun-PO, burns hot throughout the series.
In addition, Kang Baek-ho (kt), who is attracting attention as a young hitter in the KBO league with Lee Jung-hoo, also hit three hits including a home run in the fourth game of the semi-PO on the 20th, raising the batting average to 0.400.
Kiwoom foreign giant Yasiel Puig had a ‘faithful’ hit: 1 RBI in 4 at-bats in the first game, 2 hits in 4 at-bats, no hits in 4 at-bats in the second game, 2 hits in 3 at-bat (1 home run), 4 RBI, and no hits in 4 at-bats in the 4th.
The kt, which Park Byeong-ho and Kang Baek-ho suffer, and Kiwoom’s battalion with Lee Jung-hoo and Puig, cannot be judged superior or inferior.
The semi-PO 5 game match, which no one can predict, will be held a day later (the 22nd).
The winner of Game 5 goes to the PO and competes with the LG Twins for a ticket to the Korean Series.
The loser leaves the autumn period alone.
/happy news
