Where would the defending champion have gone? The LG Twins won the title despite releasing “winning contractor” Elijah Hernandez, ending their regular-season showdown with the Kia Tigers with eight consecutive losses.토토사이트
LG lost to the KIA Tigers 5-7 at the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Sunday. The third-ranked LG (65 wins, 58 losses and two draws) has a 10-game gap versus the first-ranked KIA (76 wins, 49 losses and two draws), and the possibility of winning the regular season title is nearing zero.
Having swept three wins and 12 losses through two matches against KIA, LG sought to rebound by deploying Hernandez in the last showdown of the regular season league. Hernandez, who joined the team instead of Casey Kelly, a long-time foreign player in his sixth year, raised expectations by displaying easy pitching in five games starting with the game against the Doosan Bears on Aug. 8. With 28 strikeouts in 23 innings, he pitched as a secret card against Kia’s natural enemy.
It got off to a good start. LG led 1-0 through the third inning with Austin Dean’s first solo shot and Hernandez’s no-hitter in the top of the first inning. However, Hernandez was shaken up sharply from the fourth inning. Three consecutive hitters, including Socrates Brito, Kim Do-young and Choi Hyung-woo, allowed a tie. He seemed to take a breather by groundering Na Sung-bum, but gave up a timely two-run hit to Kim Sun-bin to lower his head. Hernandez, who allowed three runs, managed to end the fourth inning with 1-3 by double play of Lee Woo-sung.
Hernandez was supported by one run by consecutive hits by Koo Bon-hyuk and Hong Chang-ki in the top of the fifth inning, but faced a crisis again in the bottom of the fifth inning. After one out, he allowed Choi Won-joon to walk, and sent the runner to the second base due to a throwing error while trying to check the ball. Later, Park Chan-ho’s timely RBI hit made four runs and Socrates was grounded out, but this time, he sent out Kim Do-young with a pitch, causing concern. In the end, Choi allowed an RBI single to the right, and was dragged to 2-5.
LG, chasing after Oh Ji-hwan with a home run in the sixth inning, failed to close the gap by allowing consecutive runs in the seventh and eighth innings. Lee Ji-gang and Jung Woo-young failed to overcome the crisis and allowed timely hits. It was all the more regrettable because they recovered two runs in the eighth and ninth innings, including Lee Young-bin’s home run hits.
LG, which has been mired in an eight-game losing streak against KIA, finished its showdown schedule shabbyly with 3 wins and 13 losses against its opponents this season. LG had the upper hand against KIA for five consecutive years from 2018 to 2022, but it slowed down from last year (7 wins and 9 losses), and was unilaterally overwhelmed this year, causing concern. It is the first time in six years that LG has recorded three or fewer wins against Doosan in 2018 since 1 win and 15 losses against Doosan.
According to the current ranking, LG, the defending champion, is most likely to go to the semi-playoff. Only when it advances to the Korean Series by beating the two teams will it encounter Kia with a very high probability. Given its past opponents, however, it is not easy to predict LG’s victory.
Among the players who played at least five at-bats against Kia this season, all hitters except Austin Dean (0.357). Park Dong-won (0.232) and Park Hae-min (0.228) suffered ups and downs due to poor batting performance.
The mound is in a worse situation. Kim Jin-seong and Yoo Young-chan, who are all-weather resources, are in charge of running the bullpen this season. However, Kim Jin-seong (6.35) and Yoo Young-chan (8.10) both showed poor performance in ERA against KIA. Choi Won-tae (seven scoreless innings) and Detrick N’s (3.68 ERA) were not bad enough.
Under this circumstance, the road to the Korean Series is not easy, but even if it goes up dramatically, it is hard to guarantee victory. Fans are increasingly worried about LG, which grows smaller when it meets a tiger.