Held back by sloppy fielding and sluggish bats, the LG Twins lasted just five days in their first Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) playoff in more than a decade.
The Twins, owner of the second-best record during the regular season, crashed out of their first postseason since 2002, succumbing to their Seoul rivals, the Doosan Bears, in four games of the best-of-five second round series. The 5-1 loss on Sunday was the final blow.
The Bears, which finished fourth in the regular season, had battled the Nexen Heroes in a grueling five-game series in the previous round, in which three games went into extra innings. They had one day off before starting the series against the Twins.
The Twins had earned the bye to the second round, and hadn't played since the end of the regular season on Oct. 5. The 'rest versus rust' debate rages on in the KBO almost every year because of the league's quirky playoff setting, in which teams with superior regular season records receive more time off between the end of the regular season and the start of the postseason.
The Bears might have been exhausted but they had been playing high-pressure playoff baseball for a week when they opened the new series against the Twins. LG, on the other hand, might have been fresher than Doosan, but the Twins players hadn't played a game for more than 10 days.
Plus, most of their players had never appeared in postseason play, whereas the core members of the Bears, in the postseason for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, were used to the playoff atmosphere.
It showed from Game 1, a 4-2 win for the Bears. LG's third baseman Jeong Seong-hoon made two errors that directly led to two Bears' runs.
Fielding miscues were the running theme for the Twins all series. They made eight errors in four games. Four of them came in the 5-4 loss in Game 3, and another two were made in the decisive 5-1 loss in Game 4.
The ability to drive in runners also haunted the Twins. They batted .272 in the series, but just .219 (7-for-32) with a runner in scoring position. They scored nine runs in four games.
They scored two runs with three hits in the bottom of the first inning in Game 1, and then managed just one hit the rest of the game, before losing the game 4-2.
The Twins took the second game 2-0. The bats remained sluggish but starter Radhames Liz and closer Bong Jung-keun combined to one-hit the Bears to even the series. The Twins had 10 hits and had a man in scoring position in each of the first six innings. They blew a bases loaded chance in the third, and stranded a runner on third base in the fourth, sixth and eighth.
In the 5-4 loss in Game 3, the Twins finally showed some chutzpah at the plate. They pounded Doosan pitching with a dozen hits, including four in their final rally in the top of the ninth.
Two of the four ninth-inning hits came with a runner on second, but both runners were thrown out at home by Doosan outfielders to end the rally and the game.
In Game 4, the Twins failed to score with two runners on and nobody out in the fourth, and left them loaded with two outs in the sixth. They also botched two sacrifice bunt attempts in the third and fourth innings.
On the field, first baseman Kim Yong-eui mishandled a grounder to let in a Bears run in the second inning. In the three-run eighth for the Bears, Oh Jae-il launched a moon shot that went off the top of the center field wall and rolled toward the right field. Center fielder Park Yong-taik misjudged the bounce off the fence and never got a proper handle of the ball in an embarrassing turn of events, as Oh chugged his way home. The play was scored as a triple and an error by Park.
After his team was eliminated, the Twins' manager Kim Ki-tae tried to look on the bright side.
"I think our players have realized what it takes to win important games, and that is the biggest gain for us," he said.
"During the regular season, we tried to play without fear in big games, but I guess it wasn't good enough. It's a difficult game, this baseball."
Kim also said he was proud of his players, and that his players should feel the same about themselves.
"Obviously, our players should be criticized for things that they did wrong, but I believe they also deserve to feel proud of themselves," the manager said. "I hope this loss won't hurt them too much." (Yonhap News)
