Hanwha Eagles hold off LG Twins to stay alive in KBO pennant chase

Son Ah-seop of the Hanwha Eagles celebrates after hitting a two-run single against the LG Twins during the clubs' Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in Daejeon, Monday. Yonhap

The Hanwha Eagles defeated the LG Twins 7-3 at home Monday to keep their South Korean baseball pennant hopes alive.

With the victory at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in Daejeon, the Eagles improved to 82-56-3 (wins-losses-ties), now 2 1/2 games behind the Twins (85-54-3) for the top spot in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) with three games to go.

The Twins would have clinched the best record in the regular season with either a win or a tie Monday, but their magic number stayed at one after the Eagles made sure their rivals wouldn't uncork champagne in Daejeon.

The Twins, who have two home games remaining, will take another crack at winning the pennant Tuesday against the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.

The Eagles have no margin for error. To climb to first place, they must win out and hope the Twins will lose all of their remaining games. In that case, the Eagles and the Twins will play a tiebreaker game to determine the top seed.

The top seed in the KBO will earn a bye to the Korean Series and enjoy an extended break after the end of the regular season. The Twins finish their regular season Wednesday and the Korean Series is scheduled to start Oct. 24.

Historically, first-place clubs have captured the Korean Series about 85 percent of the time, including the Twins in 2023.

The Eagles scored twice with two outs in the bottom of the second, thanks to Hwang Young-mook's double and Choi Jae-hoon's single off starter Im Chan-kyu.

They took a 3-0 lead in the bottom third, when Roh Si-hwan's two-out single cashing in Moon Hyun-bin. Moon was initially called out at the plate but the ruling was overturned when a video replay showed that catcher Park Dong-won did not field the throw by left fielder Moon Sung-ju cleanly.

The Twins got a run back in the top fifth with Oh Ji-hwan's solo home run, but then the Eagles busted the game open with a four-spot in the bottom sixth.

Chae Eun-seong's single off reliever Ham Deok-ju made it a 4-1 game, and then Lee Won-seok drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the Eagles' lead to 5-1.

Son Ah-seop then greeted new pitcher Yi Jung-yong with a two-run single to push his team's lead to 7-1.

The Twins cut the deficit to 7-3 in the top seventh on Oh's RBI double and Park Dong-won's run-scoring single, but couldn't get any closer.

Rookie Jeong Woo-joo tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings in his second career start, and seven relievers held the Twins to three runs on five hits to lock down the win.