Tigers eye KBO postseason history against defending champions Wiz

All News 09:52 October 12, 2022

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap) -- After sneaking into the South Korean baseball postseason with a sub-.500 record, the Kia Tigers will look to make history against the defending champions KT Wiz in the wild card series this week.

The battle between the fourth-seed Wiz and the fifth-seed Tigers starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, some 35 kilometers south of Seoul.

On Tuesday, the Wiz came within three outs of not having to play the wild card game. They held a 5-4 lead over the LG Twins going into the bottom ninth, and a win would have given them the third seed and a bye into the first round of the postseason.

Instead, closer Kim Jae-yoon served up three straight singles to load the bases. A sacrifice fly and a two-out single later, the Wiz walked off the field as the 6-5 losers.

KT Wiz players walk off the field following their 6-5 loss to the LG Twins in a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Oct. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)

The Wiz (80-60-2 in wins-losses-ties) now have to regroup before hosting the Tigers, who finished at 70-73-1 but won seven of their final 10 games in the regular season.

The Wiz won the season series 10-5-1. The Tigers were the only playoff team against whom the Wiz had a winning record in the regular season.

The Wiz will send right-hander So Hyeong-jun in Thursday's game. The 21-year-old starter matched his career high with 13 wins and set a new personal best with a 3.05 ERA in the regular season. He was 1-2 against the Tigers with a 3.71 ERA across 17 innings.

The Tigers managed 21 hits against So but had only one home run, by Hwang Dae-in. Na Sung-bum had the most success against So, going 5-for-9 with a double and an RBI.

So has given up just one earned run in 15 career postseason innings.

Jung Hai-young of the Kia Tigers (L) and his catcher Park Dong-won celebrate their 11-1 victory over the KT Wiz in a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 7, 2022. (Yonhap)

The Tigers will counter with first-year American starter Sean Nolin, who had an 8-8 record and a 2.47 ERA while missing some time with an injury.

So and Nolin also faced each other last Friday in their final regular season starts. The Tigers prevailed 11-1, as Nolin gave up one unearned run in seven innings. So took the loss after allowing four runs -- three unearned -- in five innings.

Nolin was excellent down the stretch, pitching to a 5-1 record and a 0.99 ERA over his final 45 2/3 innings covering seven starts, while striking out 37 and giving up only one home run.

Nolin was 2-1 in three regular season starts against the Wiz, recording 21 strikeouts in 18 innings. The Wiz did not go deep against him, though Hwang Jae-gyun went 3-for-7 and Bae Jung-dae went 3-for-8.

As the higher seed, the Wiz will get two cracks at winning or tying one game in order to advance to the next stage. If they have a win or a tie Thursday, they will move on to face the Heroes in the best-of-five series starting Sunday. But if the Wiz lose Thursday, they will go right back at it against the Tigers on Friday, needing a win or a tie to advance.

So Hyeong-jun of the KT Wiz pitches against the Kia Tigers during the bottom of the third inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 7, 2022. (Yonhap)

The Tigers must win two consecutive games. Since the wild card series was added to the postseason in 2015, no fifth seed has advanced to the next series. Only the 2016 Tigers and the 2021 Heroes even managed to win one game as the lower seed.

But this year, the Tigers are well rested for the wild card showdown, not having played since their regular season finale on Saturday. The Wiz, on the other hand, had to play makeup games on Monday and Tuesday and ended up playing six games over their final nine days.

Because they had to win the final two games to grab the third seed, the Wiz went all-in with their bullpen. Setup man Kim Min-su threw 54 pitches across 4 1/3 innings over Monday and Tuesday.

Sean Nolin of the Kia Tigers celebrates after completing the top of the seventh inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game against the KT Wiz at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, on Oct. 7, 2022. (Yonhap)

This came after a season-high 34-pitch outing on Saturday, resulting in Kim's heaviest workload in any three-game stretch this year. He will likely have his name called again Thursday if the Wiz are trying to protect a lead. The 30-year-old finished second in the league with 76 appearances this season.

Closer Kim Jae-yoon threw a career-high 66 1/3 innings in the regular season, and pitched on back-to-back days for only the third time since the start of September.

He did have an excellent record against the Tigers, though, with three saves in six appearances without giving up an earned run in seven innings.

On offense, Na Sung-bum led the Tigers with 21 homers and 97 RBIs. Park Byung-ho led the Wiz and the KBO with 35 home runs, but he will likely be limited to pinch-hitting duties after returning from an ankle injury that threatened to end his season in September.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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