Kiwoom Heroes eliminate LG Twins to advance to Korean Series

Baseball

Published: 29 Oct. 2022, 10:38

Kiwoom Heroes eliminate LG Twins to advance to Korean Series

Kiwoom Heroes players celebrate after beating the LG Twins 4-1 in Game 4 of the second round of the KBO playoffs at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Friday. With the win, the Heroes eliminated the Twins and advance to face the SSG Landers in the Korean Series. [YONHAP]

The Kiwoom Heroes beat the LG Twins 4-1 in Game 4 of the second round of the KBO playoffs on Friday, winning the series and eliminating the Twins to advance to face the SSG Landers in the Korean Series.

Friday's win at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul gave the Heroes a 3-1 lead on the five-game series, eliminating the regular season second-place finisher.

Former major league All-Star Yasiel Puig lived up to the hype that surrounded his signing with the Heroes in December last year, hitting a solo go-ahead home run in the third inning and batting in another run to extend the lead in the seventh.

The game started on a fairly even keel, with both teams putting up a single run in the first inning — the Twins stinging together three straight singles at the top of the first and the Heroes repeating the exact same feat at the bottom of the inning.

Puig's homer in the third then put Kiwoom up 2-1, with the next three innings silent as the pitchers' dual continued.

The Heroes broke through again in the seventh, stringing together a series of hits and an error to get runners at the corners before Puig and then Kim Tae-jin hit a couple of RBI singles to finish the job.

The Twins had a chance at the top of the eighth, but the Heroes' bullpen again proved how reliable they are in the pinch, holding off the visitors to take the 4-1 victory.

With the win, the Heroes now advance to the Korean Series where they will take on the 2022 pennant winning SSG Landers starting Tuesday.

The Landers arrive in the series after weeks of rest, while the Heroes have already played nine postseason games. That series will start at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, giving the Landers the advantage for the opening games.

The Landers walked away from the regular season with a huge edge over the Heroes, beating them in 11 of their 16 games and losing five times. The Landers ended the season with 88 wins, 52 losses and four draws, nine games ahead of the Heroes' 80 wins, 62 losses and two draws.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]