Kia’s season-high ‘8-steal show’ leads to 3 straight wins over LG…
The fourth-place KIA Tigers, led by a season-high eight team stolen bases, took the LG Twins’ spirits out of the game and won their third straight game to reach the 60-win plateau for the season.
The Tigers won a hard-fought 8-7 victory over LG on Tuesday at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju in their 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League home opener.
After sweeping the previous day’s doubleheader, KIA lost two games in a row after winning nine in a row, but then reeled off three straight wins to move into second place.
With the losses, Kia’s lead over second-place KT Wiz was cut to two games.
Leader LG, which has 70 wins for the season, lost its third straight game and failed to close the gap on the second-place team.
Kia table-setters Park Chan-ho and Kim Do-young stole two bases in the first inning to put the LG battery on the ropes.
Park Chan-ho and Kim Do-young stole two bases each, and Choi Won-jun, who came in for Na Sung-beom, stole three times.
Combined with Socrates Brito’s stolen base, KIA had eight stolen bases to secure the victory against LG, which has led the league in stolen bases this season.
The most stolen bases by a team in a single game in Korean Baseball Organization history is 10, achieved by KIA’s predecessors, HaeTae and LG, respectively.
After KIA scored four runs in the first and second innings on two doubles by Na Sung-bum, a sacrifice fly by Kim Do-young, and an RBI single by Kim Sun-bin, LG responded with two runs in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Hong Chang-ki.
After KIA scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning on a hit and three walks, LG rallied to score two runs in the fifth and sixth innings to tie the game at 7-7.
The final run came in the bottom of the seventh inning. After Park Chan-ho led off with a single up the middle and stole second base, Choi Won-joon delivered a clean single to left field for the game-winning run.
Also at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, the Hanwha Eagles held off the Kiwoom Heroes 9-8 in a back-and-forth affair that saw 26 hits exchanged, extending their winning streak to six games. Last-place Kiwoom fell to a seventh straight loss.
Hanwha scored five runs in the third inning, including a three-run homer by Moon Hyun-bin, and four runs in the fourth inning, including a two-run arch by Chae Eun-sung, to take a 9-4 lead.
Kiwoom scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth on Ronnie Dawson’s RBI single to right, a wild pitch by the Hanwha pitcher, and Song Sung-moon’s RBI double to cut the deficit to 8-9 in the eighth.
Kiwoom had the tying run on second base in the bottom of the ninth inning, but was denied by Hanwha shortstop Lee Do-yoon’s brilliant catch of Dawson’s hit-by-pitch.
At Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, the Doosan Bears defeated the Samsung Lions 8-2.
Raul Alcantara pitched six strong innings of one run (unearned) and the bats came alive at the right time.
With two outs and runners on first and third in the second inning, Kang Seung-ho ripped a double to left-center field. He came home on the next batter’s grounder to make it 3-0.
In the fifth inning, Yang Seok-hwan hit the game-winning home run to left field with runners on first and second. Yang is one home run shy of 20 for the third straight season.
Doosan took a 6-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Jose Rojas hit a two-run double to left field.
The NC Dinos beat the Lotte Giants 3-1 at Anbang in Changwon.
NC starter Eric Peddy, the best pitcher of the year, left the game with two outs, narrowly missing his first complete game of the season.
Peddy, who had allowed just two hits and struck out nine while holding the Lotte bats scoreless through eight innings, gave up an infield single to Yoo Kang-nam in the top of the ninth to give the Giants a 3-0 lead, then gave up a double to Yoon Dong-hee in left-center one out later.
Lee Yong-chan took the baton and pitched a scoreless inning.
With her 8 1/3 innings of one-run ball, Peddie improved to 18-6 on the season and lowered her ERA to 2.21, extending her home winning streak to eight games.
He also upped his strikeout total to 169, securing the trifecta of wins, ERA, and strikeouts.
There have been 37 complete games in both major leagues this year in Nippon Professional Baseball and 19 in both major leagues in American baseball, but none in the KBO, which has played 83 percent of its schedule.
NC took a quick lead in the third inning when Choi Jung-won hit a leadoff triple and Son As-seop scored on a ground ball.
In the fifth, they added two runs on back-to-back doubles by Son and Seo Ho-cheol, an error by Lotte third baseman Park Seung-wook, and Jason Martin’s single to right.
LOTTE was unfortunate that Ahn Chi-hong’s line drive with two outs in the bottom of the ninth was snagged by a picturesque diving catch by NC shortstop Kim Joo-won.
Fifth-place SSG Landers snapped a three-game losing streak and a six-game losing streak against KT with a 6-5 victory over visiting Suwon, thanks to Park Sung-ho’s game-winning two-run homer in the top of the ninth inning.
SSG scored two runs in the first inning on a leadoff home run by Choo Shin-soo over the right field wall and three hits.
KT quickly tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Jang Jang-woo hit a two-run double over the top of the center field fence with runners on first and second.
In the bottom of the fifth, after a walk to Kim Sang-soo and a hit by Kim Min-hyuk, KT scored three runs with runners on first and third on Anthony Alford’s double to left and Hwang Jae-gyun’s double to right to take a 5-2 lead.
SSG pulled within one run in the top of the sixth on Cho Hyung-woo’s sacrifice fly, then created drama against KT closer Kim Jae-yoon in the ninth.
After Choi Ji-hoon led off with a huge triple that hit the top of the right field wall, Choi Jung immediately followed with a single up the middle to cut the deficit to 4-5.
Park Sung-hyun, who came up from second base with one out, drove a two-run arch over the right field fence for a distance of 120 meters, reversing the win-loss pendulum that had tipped in KT’s favor.
Fireman Seo Jin-yong came on in the bottom of the ninth to collect his 35th save and lock the back door. 토토사이트