Twins flex muscle with 3 more home runs in Korean Series win over Wiz

Oh Ji-hwan of the LG Twins tosses his bat after hitting a three-run home run against the KT Wiz during the top of the seventh inning in Game 4 of the Korean Series at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 11. Yonhap

• Published Nov 11, 2023 8:09 PM KST
• Updated Nov 12, 2023 6:33 PM KST

All they do is hit dingers.

The LG Twins have pounded out six home runs over the past two games of the Korean Series against the KT Wiz, and they have gone deep eight times in four games overall.

They have claimed three of those four games, with the latest victory coming in a 15-4 rout in Game 4 on Saturday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul.

Kim Hyun-soo launched the opening salvo with a two-run home run in the top of the first inning. After a brief dry spell, Moon Bo-gyeong joined the fray with a two-run shot of his own in the top of the sixth. With Twins starter Kim Yun-sik dealing on the mound, Moon's homer gave them a 5-0 lead.

After the Wiz responded with a run in the bottom sixth, the Twins exploded for seven runs in the top seventh. That outburst featured a three-run bomb off the bat of Oh Ji-hwan.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Oh had also hit a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Twins to an 8-7 victory in Game 3.

It was the third and the final Twins homer of that game Friday night. Austin Dean had earlier smacked a three-run homer off the left foul pole in the third inning, and Park Dong-won had blasted a two-run shot in the sixth inning.

The Twins scored all eight of their runs Friday with home runs and seven of their 15 runs with long balls Saturday.

The Twins led the regular season with 767 runs scored in 144 games, but they only had the sixth-most home runs with 93. Playing more than half of their games at cavernous Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which they share with the Doosan Bears, has something to do with that.

Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said the goal for his team is to hit as many homers as possible in smaller road stadiums, while relying more on their speed to manufacture runs at home. That has been executed to perfection so far.

"A home run can alter the momentum of a game and can really give a team a ton of confidence," Youm said. "The more home runs we hit, the more confident our hitters become."

Kim Hyun-soo said hitting homers has been contagious.

"I remember telling the guys in the middle of Game 2 that it'd be nice to hit a home run at some point," Kim said. "One guy went deep, and it has been snowballing ever since. With the first home run out of the way, I think the guys are pretty relaxed at the plate."

Two of the three home runs Saturday came in record-breaking fashion.

With his two-run homer in the first, Kim grabbed the all-time postseason RBI lead with 44. He added another RBI with a single in the seventh.

By going deep Saturday, Oh became the first player to homer in three straight games within the same Korean Series. Previously, former SK Wyverns slugger Kim Jae-hyun had hit homers in three straight games across two Korean Series, from 2007 to 2008.

Oh's home run came as part of a seven-run seventh inning, when the Twins pieced together eight consecutive hits. It set Korean Series records for the most consecutive hits in an inning and also the most hits overall in an inning. (Yonhap)