The LG Twins avenged a shocking loss the day before with a strong start from Lee Jung-yong and a come-from-behind grand slam from Park Dong-won.
LG evened its midweek three-game series with Samsung at 1-1 with a 6-3 victory in the 14th game of the season at Lions Park in Daegu on Saturday.
Starter Lee Jung-yong pitched six innings of two-run ball with no walks and four strikeouts to improve to 5-1 on the season. Kim Jin-seong pitched a scoreless seventh and Go Woo-seok closed out the ninth with a K-K-K to earn his 11th save.
Trailing 1-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Park capped a thrilling comeback with a grand slam, his first since joining LG and the sixth of his career. He finished 3-for-5 with five RBIs.
After being held scoreless in the fifth inning by Lee Seung-hyun despite the good fortune of Samsung ace Buchanan going down with neck pain after two innings, LG struck back in the top of the sixth, shortly after Lee’s departure.
One out later, Kim Hyun-soo and Austin Austin singled to put runners on first and second. The pitcher changed from Lee Sang-min to Kim Dae-woo. Two batters later, Park Dong-won, who had walked and was batting third in the batting order, broke Kim Dae-woo’s 11-game hitless streak by pulling a five-pitch, 126-kilometer curveball into the middle of the plate. The ball traveled 160 kilometers over the left field fence for a two-run home run. That was the end of the game.
LG coach Yeom Kyung-yeop, whose five-game winning streak was snapped in the previous day’s upset loss, said, “I think the biggest achievement is that Lee Jung-yong is showing stable form as a starter. Today, we were able to play safe baseball as Seung-jo did a good job of finishing neatly,” he said. “On offense, it was a difficult game with a lot of early walks, but Park Dong-won hit his first grand slam of the season to unlock the flow, and Kim Hyun-soo added another 사설토토 run with a solo home run, so we were able to operate a little more comfortably,” he said, praising the two-hit balance.
Yeom was a little worried about the aftermath of the five-game winning streak being snapped by a defensive lapse. “It was one of the most important games to not lose after a winning streak, but I think the players showed their will to win and created a meaningful victory,” he said. “Many fans came to support us even though it was a weekday. We are grateful to our players and fans for the victory.”