The celebration of reaching 70 wins was short-lived. The LG Twins lost the first game of the doubleheader and then the second.
LG suffered its second straight loss in a doubleheader against the KIA Tigers of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field on Monday, losing 6-7 in game one and 7-12 in game two. Their season record is now 70-2-46 (.603).
LG tried to continue its upward trend by starting Im Chan-kyu and Son Ju-young in Game 1 and Game 2, respectively. In Game 1, where the starting matchup was expected to be favorable, the best-case scenario was for Im to go the distance, while in Game 2, the bullpen could be brought in early at times.
Based solely on the starting pitchers, the results were as expected. Im Chan-kyu, who took the mound in Game 1, did everything he was supposed to do as a starter, allowing four runs (three earned) on six hits (one home run) with two walks and one strikeout in 5⅔ innings.먹튀검증
In his first start in 506 days, Son struggled with his pitches and gave up three runs (one earned) on four hits, two walks, and one strikeout in 1⅔ innings before being relieved by the bullpen. That said, it was the bats and the bullpen that decided the difference between winning and losing Game 2.
In Game 1, the bats did a good job of turning around the game. Trailing 2-5 in the top of the seventh inning, LG started with a solo home run by Park Dong-won, and then added three more runs to take a 6-5 lead. In the process, active infield play by key players such as Park Hae-min and Hong Chang-ki led to runs, and ‘veteran’ Kim Jin-sung, who came into relief in the bottom of the seventh to preserve the one-run lead, seemed to keep KIA at bay with one inning of two-strikeout, no-hit ball.
However, things went south in the eighth inning. Yoo Young-chan gave up back-to-back singles to Kim Sun-bin and Lee Woo-sung in the top of the inning, and eventually gave up an RBI single to Ko Jong-wook with runners on first and second. LG showed their determination to win game one by bringing in closer Go Woo-seok early, but things didn’t go their way as Go gave up a single to Park Chan-ho with the bases loaded and two outs. In effect, LG wanted to hold on to the hard-fought Game 1 victory and go into Game 2 with a more relaxed mindset.
Not only did LG lose the game, but the KIA bats also struggled in the second inning. Second baseman Lee Ji-gang pitched effectively to earn his first career no-hitter with 2 1/3 innings of one-hit ball, two walks and two strikeouts, but then things fell apart as each pitcher from Lee Woo-chan to Park Myung-geun to Seok-joo gave up a run. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Myung-geun “Gojoluki” Park couldn’t handle the pressure and gave up the game-winning run.
With a 5.5-game lead over second-place KT Wiz, LG’s situation is still not too bad. Nevertheless, revenge for dropping both games of the doubleheader is definitely in order.