Lost 0-2 to SSG but won the championship with 7 games left due to Samsung’s defeat
Director Lee Beom-ho wins first year after taking office, following Seon Dong-yeol and Ryu Joong-il
The KIA Tigers won the pennant race for the first time in 7 years. They lost to SSG Landers and failed to finish on their own, but they took the throne after the second-place Samsung Lions also lost that day.
KIA lost 0-2 in an away game against SSG in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Incheon SSG Landers Field on the 17th.
Until that day, KIA, which had reduced the magic number for winning the regular season to 1, was unable to erase the magic number on its own.
However, in the game held at Jamsil at the same time, Samsung lost to Doosan Bears 4-8, and the gap between 1st and 2nd place remained at 8 games. With this, KIA secured the championship early with 7 games left in the regular season.
This is the 7th regular season championship in the history of the Tigers in a single league.
KIA’s regular season championship has great significance. Since 2017, KIA has had a hard time advancing to the postseason, let alone winning the championship.
They barely made it to the wild card playoffs, finishing 5th in 2018, the year after winning the championship, and 5th in 2022. I don’t remember even making it to the semi-playoffs. This year’s good results shine even brighter because they went down a dark path for a while.
Having earned a direct ticket to the Korean Series for the first time in seven years, KIA can now prepare for the fall baseball season with peace of mind, with an 84.8% (28/33) chance of winning the Korean Series.
Young leader Lee Beom-ho became the third manager to win the regular league in his first year of office, following Samsung’s Sun Dong-yeol in 2005 and Samsung’s Ryu Joong-il in 2011.
In addition, he became the second youngest manager (42 years, 9 months, 23 days) to win the regular league championship, following manager Sun Dong-yeol (42 years, 8 months, 12 days at the time) in 2005. He also made a name for himself as the third baseball player to win the regular league championship as a player and manager on the same team.
The manager said before the game that regardless of the other team’s results, he wanted to secure the championship on his own by adding one more win as soon as possible.
But the game didn’t go as planned.
Starting pitcher Kim Do-hyeon allowed a timely hit to Shin Beom-soo with one out and a runner on third base in the third inning, but held out until the sixth inning with one out, but the batting lineup was silent.
The heavyweight batting lineup, including Chan-Ho Park, Do-Young Kim, Hyung-Woo Choi, and Socrates Britto, was limited to four hits against Kwang-Hyun Kim through the fifth inning and failed to score a single run.
After the middle of the game, Noh Kyung-eun and Moon Seung-won were blocked by the SSG bullpen. KIA, who had blown chances with runners on the first and second bases with two outs in the sixth inning and bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning, failed to score until the end.
Rather, in the 8th inning, Jang Hyun-sik gave up a solo home run to SSG’s Guillermo Heredia, ultimately giving up the game.
The result of the Jamsil Samsung match was important for KIA to secure an early victory, and they received help.
KIA was able to celebrate the championship in Incheon despite losing the game as Doosan beat Samsung 8-4 thanks to Yang Eui-ji’s game-winning hit in the 4th inning.
(Incheon=News 1)
2024-09-19 07:27:44