Dinos beat Lions to force 2nd wild card game in KBO postseason
NC Dinos starter Koo Chang-mo pitches against the Samsung Lions during the clubs' wild card game in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, Monday. Yonhap
The NC Dinos defeated the Samsung Lions 4-1 on Monday to open the 2025 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason, with a gutsy outing by their starter and a series of timely hits forcing a second game in the wild card round.
Left-hander Koo Chang-mo threw six innings for one-run, while teammate Kim Hyung-jun backed him up with a solo home run before a sellout crowd of 23,680 at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu.
The Lions, as No. 4 seed, can still reach the next round with at least a tie Tuesday, back in Daegu. The fifth-seeded Dinos must win again Tuesday to advance.
The KBO introduced the wild card round in 2015 and the 2024 KT Wiz are the only No. 5 seed to make it out of this phase.
The Dinos won their last nine regular-season games to squeeze into the postseason and then claimed the first game of the postseason.
The Dinos opened the scoring by stringing together three singles off starter Ariel Jurado in the top of the first inning, the third being an RBI knock by cleanup Matt Davidson.
The Dinos extended their lead to 2-0 in the top of the second when Kim Whee-jip's groundout scored Lee Woo-sung, who'd led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt.
The Dinos tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth, with Kim Hyung-jun launching a solo home run off Jurado, and Davidson collecting his second RBI of the game with a two-out double.
Kim's home run came at a cost, however, as he was lifted for his backup Kim Jeong-ho to begin the bottom of the fifth with a left wrist injury.
Earlier in the top of the fifth, the Dinos lost their designated hitter Park Kun-woo to a right hamstring injury. With runners at first and second with nobody out, Park hit a grounder to shortstop but ran hard down the line to beat the relay throw and prevent the double play. The 35-year-old had already been dealing with some hamstring pains for days.
Koo, in his fifth start of the year after getting discharged from military service, held the Lions to only three hits through four innings, before surrendering a solo home run to Lee Sung-gyu with two outs in the fifth.
But it was the only damage the Lions inflicted on Koo and three relievers that followed. After Koo pitched around a one-out single in the sixth, lefty reliever Kim Young-kyu struck out two batters in a scoreless seventh, and Chun Sa-min and Kim Jin-ho also threw a scoreless inning each to lock down the win.
The Lions bounced into three double plays in the loss.
Dinos manager Lee Ho-joon said his team was able to maintain the momentum from the nine-game winning streak that ended the regular season and pushed them into the postseason.
"The guys are all doing their part on the field," said Lee, who is in his first year as manager and got the game ball from his players as a keepsake for his first career postseason win. "We aren't scared by the moment. We're just going out there trying to win the game. We will take the same approach tomorrow and play the same way we've always played."
The skipper heaped praise on Koo, who earned his first postseason win since November 2020.
"That was an outstanding performance. He didn't throw as hard as his last time out but he had great command," Lee said. "If he can add a little more velocity, he will be really scary."
Lee said he was concerned about Kim Hyung-jun's injury. The Dinos only have two catchers on their roster at the moment, but Kim Hyung-jun, an All-Star and a national team-caliber backstop, is a far more accomplished player than Kim Jeong-ho, who only has eight regular-season games under his belt.
Lee said Kim Hyung-jun had gone to a local hospital for further tests and he didn't expect further updates until Tuesday morning. Should something happen to Kim Jeong-ho during Tuesday's game, the Dinos may be forced to use left fielder Kwon Hui-dong or third baseman Kim Whee-jip as their emergency catcher.
Park Jin-man, the losing manager, lamented the Lions' inability to attack Koo.
"We had some hard-hit balls go straight to their fielders and we didn't create that many chances," Park said. "We have to come up with better plans at the plate tomorrow."
The Lions will turn to their homegrown ace Won Tae-in for Tuesday. He went 12-4 with a 3.24 ERA during the regular season, the second-lowest mark by a South Korean pitcher this year. He won both of his starts against the Dinos this year and had a 2.77 ERA.
The Dinos will counter with left-hander Logan Allen, who pitched to a 7-12 record and a 4.53 ERA in his first KBO regular season. He had a 5.91 ERA in two starts against the Lions.