A walk-off hit is good, but in the line-up of Yumnyang, the .4% hitter in the second half of the super catch comes first
Aug 09, 2025
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The LG Twins formed the starting lineup with Shin Min-jae (designated hitter), Moon Sung-joo (right wing), Austin (first baseman), Moon Bo-kyung (third baseman), Kim Hyun-soo (left wing), Oh Ji-hwan (striker), Park Dong-won (catcher), Koo Bon-hyuk (second baseman), and Park Hae-min (middle fielder) in the first and second place match against the Hanwha Eagles at Jamsil Stadium on the 9th.
It's a difficult situation to make a lineup. LG's starting lineup is almost fixed. Only about one spot depends on the main players' rest, but if an infielder is needed, Koo Bon-hyuk or Chun Sung-ho will go in, and if an outfielder is needed, Park Kwan-woo will go in.
The problem is that everything is doing well these days. Koo Bon-hyuk's batting average in the second half reached 411 (23 hits in 56 at-bats). On the 8th, the previous day, he also proved his good batting sense by hitting three hits.
Park Kwan-woo has also played a role in raising the team's atmosphere by hitting hits when it is important. In the second half of the year, he had a batting average of 273 (6 hits in 22 at-bats) and one homerun and five RBIs. In addition, Chun improved to a batting average of 286 (10 hits in 35 at-bats) in the second half of the year, and he led his team to victory by hitting a walk-off hit on Saturday.
In the end, coach Yeom hired Koo Bon-hyuk, who had three hits, not Chun Sung-ho, the hero of the previous day. He gave Shin Min-jae a break as a designated hitter and gave Koo Bon-hyuk second base. Koo Bon-hyuk's batting is good, but his defense is good, so he seems to have focused on defense first as much as the ace takes the mound.
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He took the mound only once against LG this year. On March 26, his first appearance since moving to Hanwha, he became a losing pitcher with six hits (one home run), two walks, five strikeouts and two runs in four ⅔ innings in Jamsil. The game was LG starter Lim Chan-kyu's first shutout since his debut.
Since he is a sidearm pitcher, he did not take the mound well against LG, which had many left-handed batters, even when he was a KT pitcher. In 2023 and 2024, he took the mound twice against LG and was not very good with a 1-1 record and an 8.44 ERA.
LG came from behind to win 2-1 with Chun Sung-ho's walk-off hit in the bottom of the 10th inning in the first of the three consecutive weekend games against Hanwha, which was called the 「Preview Korean Series」 the previous day. He gave up one run in the top of the fifth inning amid the starting showdown between Hanwha Ryu Hyun-jin and LG Lim Chan-kyu, but Austin's timely hit in the bottom of the seventh inning tied the game at 1-1. LG widened the gap with Hanwha to two games, and showed an overwhelming rise of 15 wins and two losses in the second half alone.
LG's starter on the day is Yoni Chirinos. He has started 21 games and has 9 wins, 4 losses and an ERA of 3.57. He pitched well only once against Hanwha. He faced Ryu Hyun-jin in Daejeon on April 30 and allowed four hits, two walks, six strikeouts and one run in six innings. He came down with the requirements for a winning pitcher with a 2-1 lead, but the team later lost 2-5 and failed to become a winning pitcher.
In three games in the second half, he is good with a 3.06 ERA with two wins and no losses.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.