Kang Seung-ho of the Doosan Bears hits a two-run home run against the NC Dinos during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)
The Doosan Bears smacked three home runs, including a pair by No. 8 hitter Kang Seung-ho, as they defeated the NC Dinos 10-5 at home to step closer to a postseason berth in the Korea Baseball Organization on Tuesday.
Kang slapped a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the second inning at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in the capital city, before delivering a two-run shot that extended the Bears' lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning.
Jared Young added a two-run homer of his own in the three-run fifth inning, and the Bears' bullpen put up zeroes in the final three innings.
The Bears improved to 72-68-2 (wins-losses-ties) to stay in fourth place. With one more win over their two remaining games, they will secure at least fifth and the final postseason spot.
The Dinos, eliminated from the postseason race last Thursday, fell to 60-75-2. This was the first game under interim manager Kong Pill-sung, who took over after manager Kang In-kwon was fired Friday.
The Bears will visit the Lotte Giants in the southeastern city of Busan on Thursday and finish the season against the Dinos in Changwon, just west of Busan.
The Dinos have the most games remaining in the league with seven.
The Bears scored in the bottom first with cleanup Kim Jae-hwan driving in Jung Soo-bin, who'd drawn a leadoff walk and reached third after a sacrifice bunt and a groundout.
Seo Ho-cheol's RBI triple tied the score at 1-1 for the Dinos in the top second, but then Kang came right back with his solo homer in the bottom half of that inning.
The Bears never trailed again the rest of the game.
Kang's second long ball of the evening put the Bears up 4-1. Seo answered with a solo home run in the top fifth to cut the deficit to 4-2, only to see the Bears put up a three-spot in the bottom fifth.
Young's line drive shot just cleared the right field wall to give the Bears a 6-2 lead. After a Kim Jae-hwan double, Yang Suk-hwan hit an RBI single to center to make it a 7-2 game and chase starter Lee Jae-hak from the game.
The Dinos refused to go down without a fight.
With Bears starter Choi Seung-yong out of the game after five solid innings, the Dinos jumped on reliever Hong Geon-hui.
Cheon Jae-hwan greeted Hong with a single and Matt Davidson launched his KBO-leading 46th home run of the season to center, making it a 7-4 game. Kim Hyung-jun's two-out RBI single brought the Dinos within 7-5 and knocked Hong out of the game.
The Bears then killed any hope of a Dinos comeback with two insurance runs in the bottom sixth.
Kang reached on a throwing error by third baseman Kim Whee-jip and advanced to second when the ball sailed into the bullpen. Jo Soo-haeng put down a sacrifice bunt back to pitcher Kim Tae-hyun, whose errant throw skipped past first baseman Davidson and allowed Kang to score.
After Jo was sacrificed over to second, Kim Jae-ho extended the Bears' lead to 9-5 with a single. Kim picked up another RBI in the eighth.
After Hong's implosion, the Bears' bullpen held steady.
Right-hander Choi Jong-in worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings for his first career hold, while Park Chi-guk added 1 2/3 scoreless frames.
With his two homers and three RBIs, Kang extended his career-high marks to 18 home runs and 80 RBIs.
No.2 hitter Kim Jae-ho contributed two hits and two RBIs. He has six RBIs in eight games this month, after recording just five RBIs 47 previous games.
This was the Bears' final home game of the season. The game drew 22,064 fans at the 23,750-seat stadium, as the Bears finished the season with a club record of 1,301,768 fans. (Yonhap)
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