Opposing managers taking contrasting pitching plans into KBO postseason series

With his bullpen considerably weaker than the team's title run from a year ago, LG Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said Saturday he will need his starters to munch up innings.

In ending a 29-year title drought in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2023, the Twins leaned heavily on their bullpen. But gone is the closer from that season, Go Woo-suk, who signed with the San Diego Padres in January. Setup man Jung Woo-young just had his worst regular season of his career, and not many relievers pitched their way into Youm's circle of trust.

"Last year, we had seven middle relievers, and that allowed us to respond to any type of situation. That's not the case this year," Youm told reporters before the Twins hosted the KT Wiz at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul to begin the first round of the postseason Saturday. "Obviously, you need your starters to pitch well in postseason, but that's even more of the case for us this year. We can't afford to pull starters after the second or third innings this year. Unless they really struggle, we'll have to keep them on for as long as we can."

The Twins will be without new closer You Young-chan, whose father passed away earlier in the week. Starter Elieser Hernandez will be ready to close the game should the Twins have the late lead, Youm said.

"We won't ask him to go more than two innings," Youm added.

The Twins ranked second with 808 runs scored in the regular season and Youm will look to his lineup to do some heavy lifting again.

The Twins won the season series against the Wiz 9-7 and outscored them 113-93. Moon Bo-gyeong smacked five of the Twins' 12 homers in those games, and Moon will bat cleanup Saturday.

Youm's counterpart, Lee Kang-chul, enjoys the luxury of strong relievers waiting in the pen in case starters falter early.

Swingman Ko Young-pyo will start Saturday's game, but Lee said he won't ask too much more from him than about three innings. Ko, normally a starter, pitched Tuesday and again Thursday out of the bullpen, though he threw fewer than 20 pitches each time.

"We've been taking this one day at a time because we've played three straight elimination games this week," Lee said of the Wiz's path to the first round, as they had to win a fifth-place tiebreaker game and then two straight wild card games. "We'll have a day off after a couple of games.

"If Young-pyo can hold his own for two to three innings, then we can send in our top relievers," Lee said. "Maybe Young-pyo will be on top of his game but we're not going to push him too hard today."

In the wild card round, the Wiz shut down the Bears 4-0 and then 1-0, with starters William Cuevas and Wes Benjamin each throwing scoreless gems. Lee said he wasn't all that concerned about his team's lack of firepower from those two wins.

"Starters pitched well and we scored just enough runs to win. That's the identity of our team," Lee said. "We got our share of hits. I think we'll be fine."