LG Twins shortstop Oh Ji-hwan speaks with reporters at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Oct. 5, 2024, before a Korea Baseball Organization postseason game against the KT Wiz. (Yonhap)
After helping his LG Twins end a 29-year title drought in South Korean baseball last year, shortstop Oh Ji-hwan wants nothing more than another taste of the championship this year.
With the Twins set to face the KT Wiz in the first round of the Korea Baseball Organization postseason Saturday afternoon, Oh said the pressure may be off the shoulders of the Twins players. But that doesn't mean there is any less drive or motivation.
"I want to keep winning," Oh said at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. "After we won the title last year, everything went by so quickly. I don't think I had a chance to really savor it."
Oh was voted the MVP of the Korean Series after belting three key home runs in a five-game victory over the Wiz. The Twins ending their long title drought was considered one of the biggest South Korean sports stories of 2023, and Oh had to fulfill media obligations throughout the offseason.
"I was a bit stressed out, doing all those interviews," Oh said with a smile. "I was so busy after the Korean Series ended, and I had to go back and watch some replays to relive some moments from the series."
While many members of the championship core are still on the Twins, the winning pitcher in the title-clinching game, Casey Kelly, is not around. He was released in July during his sixth season, but the longest-serving foreign player in Twins history has remained in touch with his former KBO teammates.
Oh said he and Kelly still talk "almost every day." Oh speaks enough English to exchange pleasantries and talk about what's going on with the Twins, and Kelly also understands enough Korean in case Oh runs into problems with the foreign language.
"We even talked on the phone this morning," Oh said. "He told me to go play well today. He wants to see us succeed. He's still part of our family."
While the Twins are trying to get the better of the Wiz for the second straight year, the Wiz want to turn the table this year.
They can thank starter Wes Benjamin for setting up this opportunity. The American left-hander fired seven shutout innings Thursday to help the Wiz beat the Doosan Bears 1-0 to capture the wild card series and reach the first round.
For Benjamin, who didn't get a decision in his lone Korean Series start last year, the loss from a year ago still stings.
"I think we have that fire in us still from last year. We've been thinking about it for a while," Benjamin told Yonhap News Agency. "To us, it's still very personal. So we'll see how we come out and how hard we end up playing here these first two games in Jamsil and we'll see where the series goes."
The Wiz have won three straight "win-or-go-home" games to make it this far: beating the SSG Landers in a fifth-place tiebreaker game and then defeating the Bears in two straight games in the wild card round. Benjamin said the key has been to treat these games as normal.
"We're not trying to do too much and I think that's what's putting us in a good position to win," he said. "Honestly, it's just another month of the season. I think when things start to get a little too stressful and we start to end up playing too tight and not as relaxed as we could. I think that's when things start to change but for now everything is going smoothly and we hope to keep it that way."
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