Eagles pull off late rally over Twins for 1st win in Korean Series

Hanwha Eagles' Sim Woo-jun hits a ball at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon, Wednesday. Yonhap

The Hanwha Eagles scored six times in the bottom of the eighth inning to erase a two-run deficit, as they defeated the LG Twins 7-3 on Wednesday for their first win of the Korean Series.

Sim Woo-jun capped the massive rally with a go-ahead, two-run double at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon, putting the Eagles on the board after they lost the first two games of this best-of-seven Korea Baseball Organization championship series.

Game 4 is back at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The Eagles will try to become only the third team in 22 tries to rally from a 2-0 Korean Series deficit to win the title.

For the second straight game, the Eagles scored first.

With runners at first and second in the bottom second, Choi Jae-hoon dumped a single off starter Son Ju-young to shallow left, not deep enough for the slow-footed Lee Jin-young to score from second.

Lee put on the brakes first, but as left fielder Kim Hyun-soo bobbled the ball, Lee sprinted home for a 1-0 Eagles lead.

The Eagles again had men at first and second, but the Twins limited further damage thanks to a heads-up play by shortstop Oh Ji-hwan.

When Lee Do-yun hit a pop fly to shallow center, Oh got under the ball but let it drop just in front of him, while both runners stayed near their bags thinking the ball would be caught.

Oh quickly tossed the ball to second to force out Choi, and tagged out Ha Ju-suk in a rundown between second and third.

The Twins responded right away in the top third against starter Cody Ponce, as Shin Min-jae cashed in Gu Bon-hyeok from first with a line drive to the left-center gap. Shin was tagged out at third trying to stretch his double to a triple.

The Twins grabbed their first lead in the top fourth, when Kim Hyun-soo atoned for his earlier fielding miscue with a solo home run to left-center field.

At 1-0 count, Kim crushed a middle-middle changeup from Ponce and drove it 125 meters into the seats.

By starting Wednesday, Kim pulled into a tie for second place with 104 career postseason games. He is five behind the leader in that category, former catcher Hong Sung-heon. The homer was Kim's 99th hit in his postseason career, two back of Hong.

Son, the Twins starter, settled after the run-scoring play in the second inning. He did not give up another hit over his next three innings before handing the reins to the bullpen.

Ponce, his counterpart, also kept the Twins off the board after Kim Hyun-soo's home run, though he had to work out of a jam in the sixth.

He hit Hong Chang-ki to start the inning, and a sacrifice bunt moved Hong to scoring position. Ponce then struck out Austin Dean for the second out. He chose to walk Kim intentionally after falling to a 3-0 count, and then struck out Moon Bo-gyeong to end the Twins threat.

A battle of the bullpens ensued, and the Eagles blinked first in the top eighth.

Han Seung-hyuk started the inning by getting a flyout but then allowed a double to Hong Chang-ki. New pitcher Kim Beom-su came on and gave up an infield single to Shin Min-jae, as the Twins now had runners at the corners.

With Dean at the plate, another reliever, Kim Seo-hyeon, took the mound. Kim then threw a wild pitch, well behind Dean's head, at 0-2 count to gift-wrap a run to the Twins.

The Eagles were down 3-1 entering the bottom eighth, with the shutdown reliever Song Seung-ki on the mound. But pinch hitter Kim Tae-yean greeted him with a fortuitous double, with a flyball into shallow center going off the glove of center fielder Park Hae-min and rolling all the way back into the infield.

The massive comeback was on.

Son Ah-seop followed with a single to put the runners at the corners. Two batters later, with closer You Young-chan now pitching, Moon Hyun-bin singled to left to cut the deficit to 3-2.

You struck out Roh Si-hwan for the second out but walked Chae Eun-seong to load the bases. You then walked pinch hitter Hwang Young-mook to push in the tying run.

The light-hitting Sim Woo-jun then knocked a double down the left field line to plate two runs for a 5-3 Eagles lead, before Choi Jae-hoon's single to right extended the lead to 7-3.

That margin was comfortable enough for Kim Seo-hyeon, the Eagles' All-Star closer who had struggled in late innings for weeks. The right-hander gave up a single and hit a batter in the top ninth but got pinch hitter Moon Sung-ju to bounce into a game-ending double play.