KT-LG, 1st semi-PO match today in Jamsil
‘High school seniors and juniors’ ‘Nexen one-pot meal’ relationship… Coach Yeom won last year’s KS head-to-head final
“Ride the upward trend and continue to challenge the first record”… Yeom “The players’ confidence is stronger than ever”
KT Go Young-pyo – LG Ens starting matchup
KT coach Lee Kang-cheol (58) and LG coach Yeom Kyeong-yeop (56), who are two years senior and junior at Gwangju Jeil High School, will play a postseason ‘return match’ one year after last year’s Korean Series.
LG, ranked 3rd in the professional baseball regular season, and KT (5th), which advanced through the wild card match, will play the first game of the semi-playoffs (semi-PO, 3 wins out of 5) at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 5th. The relationship between the two directors is special. The first to take the helm of a professional team was coach Yeom, a junior. At the end of 2012, he became the head coach of Nexen (now Kiwoom), and coach Lee, who was taking a break after resigning from his position as KIA coach at the time, was hired as Nexen coach. Afterwards, he worked as a manager and head coach at Nexen for four years from 2013 to 2016.
Coach Lee was the first to lift the Korean Series championship trophy. Coach Lee, who took over as KT’s head coach in 2019, led the team to the postseason stage for the first time since its founding the following year, and in 2021, his third year in office, he achieved a combined championship by taking the top spot in both the regular season and the Korean Series.
In the Korean Series match last year, Coach Yeom laughed. LG, which went straight to the Korean Series as first place in the regular season, lost Game 1 of the Korean Series, but then won four games from Games 2 to 5, winning its first championship in 29 years. Coach Yeom, nicknamed ‘Yeom Gal-ryang’ for his diverse baseball strategy, used his powerful ‘bullpen power’ to bring the series to a close that could have been lost in last year’s Korean Series. KT stayed in the bottom tier at the beginning of last season, but improved its ranking with ‘Steel Magic’ and eventually finished the regular season in 2nd place. KT fell to the bottom at one point this year, but eventually succeeded in advancing to the postseason.
LG’s mound strength has weakened compared to last year due to closing pitcher Ko Woo-seok’s departure to the United States and swingman Lee Jeong-yong’s military service, but they plan to make a splash with offensive baseball in this semi-PO. Coach Yeom said, “During the training camp after the regular season, I paid more attention to hitting than anything else. “The hitters trained with a focus on maintaining their hitting skills,” he said.
The weight of LG’s batting lineup, which includes Hong Chang-ki, who ranked first in on-base percentage in the regular season, and Austin, who ranked first in RBIs, is ahead of KT’s. LG also ranked first in team steals (171) this season thanks to its ‘running baseball.’ This figure is nearly three times that of KT, which ranks last in team steals (61). Coach Yeom said, “The confidence our players gained from winning the Korean Series last year is stronger than ever.”
KT is looking forward to the upward momentum that has been building since the 5th place match. On the 1st, KT achieved a come-from-behind victory over SSG in the 5th place match held for the first time since the launch of professional baseball. And in the first and second games of the wild card decision on the 2nd and 3rd, they achieved semi-PO status with ‘the first upset of a 5th place team in history’ by winning 2 consecutive wins against Doosan (4th place), the top team in the regular season. Director Lee said, “We are continuing to write ‘records of firsts.’ “We will continue to challenge the first record together with our fans,” he said.
As the starting pitchers for the first game of the semi-PO, LG will feature foreign left-hander Ens, and KT will feature sidearm Go Young-pyo. The Ens recorded 13 wins, 6 losses, and an ERA of 4.19 in the regular season. Ens will play the game after pitching 6 innings against Doosan on the 22nd of last month and resting for 12 days. Go Young-pyo’s starting pitch is unexpected. This is because Ko Young-pyo went on the mound in the 8th inning of the second game of the wild card game against Doosan on the 3rd and threw 14 pitches while facing three batters in one inning. In the 5th place match on the 1st, he pitched 18 pitches over 1 2/3 innings. Regarding Ko Young-pyo starting the mound after just one day of rest, Coach Lee said, “I wanted to continue the good atmosphere. Ko Young-pyo also volunteered to take the mound with a sense of responsibility,” he said. “If you don’t overdo it and throw about 40 to 50 balls to set the tone in the early stages of the game, the sure-win relay pitching team will take responsibility.”
Reporter Lee Heon-jae [email protected]
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2024-10-05 04:24:25