Seoul rivals going toe-to-toe to begin KBO postseason this week
Players for the Doosan Bears, left, and the LG Twins pose for photos before playing their final Korea Baseball Organization regular-season meeting at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Two bitter rivals who share a soon-to-be-torn-down Seoul stadium as their home will square off to start the Korean baseball postseason this week.
The LG Twins will host the Doosan Bears in the first game of the wild card round of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in the capital city. As the fourth seed, the Twins will advance to the next round with either a win or a tie Wednesday. If they lose, though, the Twins will have another opportunity to grab a win or a tie at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, back at Jamsil.
The Bears, the fifth seed, must win two straight games at Jamsil to reach the next round.
The KBO added the wild card round to the postseason in 2015 and only once has a fourth seed been eliminated — the 2024 Bears against the KT Wiz.
The Twins will start former major leaguer Carlos Carrasco, who went 6-3 with a 4.05 ERA in 11 starts after joining the club in July. He tossed seven shutout innings against the Bears in his KBO debut on Aug. 1.
The Bears will counter with Gwak Been, who led the KBO this year with a 2.24 ERA and 197 strikeouts. He will pursue his first career postseason win, after going 0-3 with a 7.58 ERA in his six previous starts. Gwak had a 1.96 ERA in three meetings against the Twins this year.
This will be the seventh postseason showdown between these two clubs and their final one at Jamsil, which opened in 1982 and will be demolished after this season to make room for a new domed stadium.
The Twins had the upper hand in the season series, winning 11 times out of 16 meetings with one tie and four losses. However, they are entering the postseason in different forms.
The Twins fell from first place to fourth place during the second half of the season as injuries piled up. The Bears held steady in fifth place throughout while fending off some late-season push from other clubs.
The Bears clinched the fifth seed last week and have been able to set their rotation while resting key bullpen pitchers to prepare for the wild card contests. The Twins, on the other hand, went all-in on trying to grab the third seed on the final day of the regular season Monday, when a victory over the Kia Tigers would have allowed the Twins to skip the wild card phase and advance directly to the best-of-five first round. The Twins lost that game 4-2 to settle for fourth place and will now try to pick up the pieces amid some troubling bullpen issues.
The Twins ranked fifth in the team bullpen ERA with 5.05, whereas the Bears had the best bullpen ERA at 3.86.
The Twins will be without the veteran right-hander Kim Jin-sung, who is out for season with a shoulder injury. Former All-Star closer Go Woo-suk was their best reliever down the stretch but he is not eligible for postseason play. After a brief stint in the majors with the Minnesota Twins, Go rejoined LG on Sept. 2. Players must be on the active roster by July 31 each year to be able to compete in postseason games.
Neither team brings much firepower offensively but the Twins feature one of the KBO's premier sluggers in Austin Dean.
In the regular season, Dean finished third in home runs with 41, RBIs with 127 and doubles with 34. The American hitter posted the league's highest on-base plus slugging (OPS) with 1.062.
The Bears ranked below average in virtually all offensive categories but had the second-most steals with 117. Given their strong pitching, the Bears may not need many runs to win games.