Moon Sang-chul of the KT Wiz celebrates after hitting a two-run home run against the LG Twins during Game 1 of the first round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Saturday. (Yonhap)
The KT Wiz scored early and hung on for dear life to defeat the LG Twins 3-2 on Saturday to begin their South Korean baseball postseason series.
Moon Sang-chul smoked a two-run home run in the top of the second inning at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, and No. 9 hitter Sim Woo-jun delivered an RBI double in the fifth for the narrow Game 1 victory in the first round.
Before a sellout crowd of 23,750 fans, Wiz starter Ko Young-pyo tossed four innings of one-run ball just two days after making a relief appearance in the wild card round.
Game 2 of this best-of-five series is back at Jamsil at 2 p.m. Sunday.
In 15 previous first rounds played in the best-of-five format, the team that won the first game advanced to the next round 11 times.
This is a rematch of the 2023 Korean Series, where the Twins beat the Wiz in five games to capture their first championship since 1994.
By virtue of finishing third in the regular season, the Twins had a direct ticket to the first round. The Wiz, on the other hand, had to beat the SSG Landers in a fifth-place tiebreaker game on Tuesday just to sneak into the postseason. Then in the wild card round, the Wiz beat the No. 4 seed Doosan Bears in two straight games to reach this stage. They are the first No. 5 seed to make it out of the wild card phase since its introduction in 2015.
The Wiz drew the first blood in the top of the second thanks to Moon's two-run blast.
After cleanup Kang Baek-ho had led off the inning with a single, Moon, making his first start of this postseason, drilled an inside fastball from starter Dietrich Enns and sent it into left-field seats.
It was Moon's third career postseason dinger.
The Twins cut the deficit in half in the bottom fourth, after getting nothing against starter Ko Young-pyo for the first three frames.
With one out in the fourth, Shin Min-jae slapped a single to right and stole second. Austin Dean brought him home with a single to left.
The Wiz restored their two-run lead in the top fifth, thanks to Sim's one-out RBI double.
But Sim was doubled off at second base after Kim Min-hyuck lined out to shortstop.
The Wiz frittered away another opportunity to pull away in the top sixth. With one out and runners at the corners, Moon, the home run hitter from the second inning, bounced into a 5-4-3 double play against new pitcher Kim Jin-sung.
The Twins got to within a run again in the bottom sixth on some miscommunication by the Wiz defense.
With runners at the corners, Shin Min-jae tried to steal second base. But no one covered the bag for the Wiz as catcher Jang Sung-woo's throw sailed into center field, allowing Hong Chang-ki to score easily from third to make it a 3-2 game.
But the Twins couldn't get any closer as Moon Bo-gyeong struck out to end the inning.
The Wiz couldn't cash in on Kim Min-hyuck's one-out triple in the top eighth, as Elieser Hernandez, a starter making a relief appearance in his Korea Baseball Organization postseason, struck out the next two batters.
But the Wiz's bullpen made the one-run lead stand, with Son Dong-hyun, So Hyeong-jun and Park Yeong-hyun each working a scoreless inning to close out the win.
Son retired the side in the bottom seventh on just three pitches, becoming the first pitcher in KBO postseason history to get three outs on three pitches.
Wiz manager Lee Kang-chul said his hitting coaches had told him Moon could do some damage in this game but he didn't expect to see a home run right away.
"His home run put the early momentum on our side," Lee said. "Then after we gave up a run, we scored in the very next half inning. That had a huge impact on our win."
Twins skipper Youm Kyoung-youb rued wasted opportunities.
"We will consider shuffling the lineup," he said. "Some of our key guys didn't have their timing down."
Dating to the end of the regular season, the Wiz have now won seven straight games.
For Game 2, the Wiz will start right-hander Um Sang-back. He had a 1-1 record with an 8.44 ERA in two regular-season starts against the Twins. He allowed 16 hits, including three homers, in 10 2/3 innings. Kim Hyun-soo and Hong Chang-ki each went 3-for-6 against Um.
The Twins will counter with Im Chan-kyu, who went 3-0 with a 2.70 ERA against the Wiz this past regular season. He did surrender three homers in 20 innings, including one by slugger Mel Rojas Jr.
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