At the home game of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League against the KT Wiz held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sunday, LG lost 4-8 after a close game. With the loss, LG maintained its third position in the league by recording 64 wins, 56 losses and two draws. The gap between the second-ranked Samsung (68 wins, 54 losses and two draws) widened from the previous two games to three.안전놀이터
Starting as LG’s starter on the day, Choi pitched seven innings (a total of 95 pitches), four hits, one walk, eight strikeouts and one run (one earned) to seemingly win the game. Choi allowed the first run in the top of the first inning, but he then blocked the opponent team’s batters. After finishing pitching until the top of the seventh inning when the two teams were tying 1-1 with each other, Moon Bo-kyung hit a three-run homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning, and seemed to be on the verge of winning.
However, the bullpen collapsed. Kim Jin-seong, who took the mound in the eighth inning, allowed leadoff hitter Oh Yoon-seok to hit a home run to left on the first pitch, and gave Hwang a two-run shot to tie the game to left after two outs. The game ended at 4-4.
In the end, the game went to extra time, and LG collapsed as soon as they entered the top of the 10th inning. LG added Park Myung-geun instead of Yoo Young-chan. Oh Yoon-seok got on base with an infield hit to the third base and then went all the way to the third base when Rojas doubled. With no outs and runners on the second and third bases in crisis, LG replaced its pitcher with Lee Ji-gang.
However, even Lee Ji-gang bowed his head. He handled Cheonseong-ho with a ground ball to the first base, but Jang Sung-woo hit a timely hit to left. (5-4) Hwang Jae-gyun drew a walk and Kang Baek-ho drove in a RBI single. Following Oh’s sacrifice hit (6-4), third baseman Hwang Jae-gyun ran away to home-in, 8-4, when Bae Jeong-dae had an infield hit. In fact, the game was decided on the day.
This season, LG had a hard time forming a bullpen session since the opening of the season. It was hard to find bullpen session resources that LG had previously believed in. It is no exaggeration to say that only two bullpen sessions including Kim Jin-seong and Yoo Young-chan have been performing their roles throughout the season from the first half of the season. The two teams rank first and second in the number of games played this season in LG. Kim Jin-seong ranks first in holds in his team with two wins, three losses, one save, 23 holds, and an earned run average (ERA) of 4.32 in 60 games. Yoo has had seven wins, four losses, 22 saves, and one hold in 51 games with an ERA of 2.33.
The “2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League” LG-KT match took place at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 28th. KT Hwang Jae-gyun (left) is running around the ground after hitting a two-run home run to the left in the top of the eighth inning with two outs and runners on the first base./Photo by Kim Jin-kyung
LG fans recall the bullpen session in which they miraculously won the Korean Series last year. In the second game of the Korean Series on Nov. 8, 2014, Choi Won-tae, the starting pitcher, was substituted early as he allowed four earned runs (four earned runs) on two hits and two walks during the first ⅓ of the series. However, seven bullpen session pitchers who took the mound after Choi was replaced by Lee Jung-yong (one ⅔ inning), Jung Woo-young (one ⅓ inning), Kim Jin-seong (⅔ inning), Baek Seung-hyeon (⅔ inning), Yoo Young-chan (two ⅓ innings), Ham Deok-ju (one inning), and Ko Woo-seok (one inning) took the mound in succession without losing any additional points. In the meantime, the team scored five points, making it 5-4 come-from-behind victory. If the team had lost the game, it would not have been easy for LG to win the game as it suffered two losses. In the end, the entire series was put to square one in the second game, and LG won the title with four wins and one loss. At the center of the game was the iron-barred bullpen.
Now, however, some of them are not in the team, or even if they are, they are not showing the same prowess as last year. Lee Jung-yong joined the military athletic team, and Ko Woo-suk advanced to the U.S. stage. Jung Woo-young and Baek Seung-hyun were excluded from the roster due to injury and poor performance. Yoo Young-chan and Kim Jin-seong are holding on. It is worth looking forward to see that Ham Deok-ju has recently returned to play after rehabilitation. Lee Woo-chan (ERA 9.09), Baek Seung-hyun (8.71), Choi Dong-hwan (6.95), Kim Dae-hyun (5.73), and Park Myung-geun (5.55) all have earned runs over the five-point range. On top of that, Jung Woo-young has a 4.34 ERA and Lee Ji-gang has a 4.26 ERA, respectively. It has become difficult to find a bullpen resource that can reliably take responsibility for one inning.
LG will immediately play the last of three consecutive home games against KT on Saturday. It will then move to KT Wiz Park in Suwon on Sunday, where it will have its last showdown of this season with KT. Earlier, LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop declared that he will use foreign first starter Elijah Hernandez as a bullpen session on Tuesday and Thursday. It can be seen as a desperate measure. Despite the collapse of the bullpen session this season, LG has been steadily maintaining its upper ranks and is ranking third. Will LG be able to revive in the remaining 22 games.