After being on the verge of elimination from postseason contention in South Korean baseball, the SSG Landers will live to see another day.
Slugger Choi Jeong belted a grand slam as part of a two-homer performance Monday, as the Landers defeated the Kiwoom Heroes 7-2 in their Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular-season finale at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, some 30 kilometers west of Seoul. Landers starter Drew Anderson tossed five innings of one-hit ball while striking out eight for his 11th win of the season.
By improving to 72-70-2 (wins-losses-ties), the Landers pulled into a tie with the KT Wiz for the fifth and final postseason spot, and finished the regular season on a four-game winning streakThe two will play a fifth-place tiebreaker game Tuesday — the first of its kind in league history — at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, some 30 kilometers south of Seoul, with the final postseason ticket at stake.
The winner of that game will advance to the wild card game Wednesday against No. 4 seed Doosa
n Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
The Heroes finished in last place for the second straight season with a record of 58-86.
The Landers were stuck in eighth place on Sept. 1, three games out of the final playoff spot with 18 games to go. They went 13-4-1 in those 18 contests to give themselves one final shot at reaching the postseason.
The Landers failed to cash in with a man in scoring position in each of the first two innings against left-hander Yun Seok-won, a second-year pitcher making his first career start.
And the Landers got on the board as soon as Yun left the game after hitting a batter with one out in the bottom of the third, Facing new pitcher Kim Seon-gi, Choi Jeong drilled a 2-1 slider and sent it over the left-field wall for a two-run shot that put the Landers up 2-0.
Park Seong-han’s two-out single extended the Landers’ lead to 3-0 in the bottom fourth. After a throwing error by second baseman Kim Hye-seong loaded the bases, Choi launched a grand slam to right-center field to bl
ow the game wide open at 7-0.
Choi hammered a 1-1 fastball from reliever Kim Dong-hyeok for his 15th career grand slam. He is now alone in second place on the all-time list, three back of the current Kia Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho.
Anderson didn’t even need that much run support. The American right-hander no-hit the Heroes for four innings, and an infield single by Choi Joo-hwan to begin the fifth was the only Heroes hit against Anderson.
The Heroes got their first run off new pitcher Han Doosol in the top sixth, with Park Soo-jong hitting a leadoff triple and coming home on a sacrifice fly by Kim Tae-jin.
Kim Gun-hee’s RBI single in the top ninth got the second run across for the Heroes.
In the bottom eighth, Landers outfielder and designated hitter Choo Shin-soo made his final regular-season appearance as a pinch hitter. The 2018 American League All-Star for the Texas Rangers announced in December last year that this would be his final season.
Choo, who had been plagued by shoulder pains all season, gr
ounded out to second base. Landers manager Lee Sung-yong said in a pregame media availability that Choo is a question mark for the postseason, should his team get there.
The game was played before a sellout crowd of 23,000. It was the ninth sellout for the Landers this season, tying the franchise record.
The Landers drew 1,143,773 fans this year, also a new franchise mark.
Source: Yonhap News Agency