Doosan put the brakes on KT’s surge and reclaimed third place in the standings for a day behind a strong performance from starter Brandon Waddell and a focused batting lineup.
The Doosan Bears won a 7-4 home game against the KT Wiz in the 2023 KBO Baseball League on Friday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
Doosan, which dropped to fourth place after losing to KT the previous day (April 4), regained third place in a day’s time with 47 wins, one draw, and 43 losses. KT, on the other hand, saw its eight-game winning streak come to an end, suffering its 44th loss (48 wins, 2 draws).
Doosan named Jung Soo-bin (center fielder), Kim Jae-ho (shortstop), Yang Seok-hwan (first baseman), Yang Ji (designated hitter), Jose Rojas (left fielder), Kang Seung-ho (second baseman), Kim Tae-geun (right fielder), Jang Seung-hyun (catcher), and Heo Kyung-min (third baseman) in its starting lineup, led by pitcher Brandon.
KT countered with Anthony Alford (left field), Sang-chul Moon (designated hitter), Jae-gyun Hwang (third base), Byung-ho Park (first base), Sung-woo Jang (catcher), Sang-soo Kim (shortstop), Yoon-seok Oh (second base), Jeong-dae Bae (center field), and Chi-young Ahn (right field). The starting pitcher was Wes Benjamin.
From the beginning of the game, Doosan pushed KT hard. Leadoff hitter Jung Soo-bin opened the scoring with a double to right field, and Kim Jae-ho responded with a single to left field. After a Yang Suk-hwan fly to right field and a walk to Yang Ji, Rojas lined a single to right, and a throwing error by the right fielder allowed the runners to advance to second and third. The next batter, Kang Seung-ho, hit a grounder to third, but KT third baseman Hwang Jae-gyun’s throwing error allowed Rojas to score from second.
Doosan’s scoring streak continued in the bottom of the second inning. One out later, Heo Kyung-min singled to left and Jung Soo-bin followed with an RBI triple to right-center field. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Kim Tae-geun doubled to left and Jang Seung-hyun’s sacrifice bunt brought him home on a wild pitch by the opposing pitcher.
After suffering back-to-back blows, KT continued to try to fight back, but the bats were locked down by Doosan starter Brandon.
With momentum on their side, Doosan broke through in the bottom of the fifth inning. Leadoff hitter Kim Jae-ho led off with a single to right, and Yang Seok-hwan followed with a two-run arch over the left field fence. It was Yang’s 16th home run of the season. The home run made it 7-0 for Doosan.
But KT wasn’t about to let the game slip away. They turned the top of the eighth inning into a big inning to get back into the game. With runners on first and second after back-to-back singles by Song Min-seob and Ahn Chi-young, Alford and Moon Sang-chul hit RBI singles to right and a sacrifice fly to center field, respectively. With the bases loaded, Hwang Jae-gyun hit a two-run shot over the left field fence.
But that was as close as KT would get. No more runs were scored, and Doosan faced the third place team again for the second time in a day.
Doosan starter Brandon threw seven innings of four-hit, one-run ball, striking out eight and walking none on 91 pitches to pick up his fourth win of the season (2-2). He was followed by Lee Hyung-beom (0 innings, 3 runs) and Kim Kang-ryul (0.2 innings, 1 run), but Kim Myung-shin (Hall, 0.1 innings) and Hong Gun-hee (Se, 1 inning) closed out the game without allowing any more runs. At the plate, Jung Soo-bin (5-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 run), Kim Jae-ho (4-for-2, 1 RBI, 2 runs), Yang Seok-hwan (3-for-1, 1 home run, 2 RBI), Rojas (4-for-2, 1 RBI), and Heo Kyung-min (4-for-2, 1 RBI) stood out.메이저사이트
KT was plagued by a poor outing from starter Benjamin (4 innings, 6 hits, 2 walks, 5 runs, 4 earned). It was his fourth loss of the season (11 wins). The result also ended KT’s streak of consecutive quality starts (6+ innings and 3 earned runs or less) at 7. The defense, which committed three errors, was also a factor in the loss.