Will he be able to smile at the last showdown of the season.
The LG Twins of the Korean pro baseball league will have a showdown with the KIA Tigers in Game 16 of this season in Gwangju on Tuesday. LG has been thoroughly dealt with by Kia this year. It is inferior to the Kia Tigers in 15 games by posting three wins and 12 losses. It had three sweep losses in three consecutive games. It suffered two sweep losses at Jamsil Stadium on July 9-11, and Aug. 16-18, recording its seventh consecutive defeat in the match against KIA.
Chances are high that Kia will win the title during the regular season. As Kia won both games consecutively with Samsung over the weekend, it has crossed the nine-point ridge. It is 6.5 games ahead of second-ranked Samsung.
Even if KIA (75 wins, 2 draws and 49) has 9 wins, 9 losses, and a winning rate of 50% in the remaining 18 games, Samsung (69 wins, 2 draws and 56) must have 16 wins and 1 loss in the remaining 17 games to outperform KIA in the final performance.
Currently, LG ranks third, nine games behind the leading Kia Tigers. The team’s dream to come from behind was effectively broken in mid-August when it suffered a sweep loss in three consecutive games against Kia. Now, the team must realistically catch up with Samsung for the second place.
LG needs to overcome its natural enemy, which is unilaterally losing ground to Kia, in the final showdown to some extent to ease psychological burden when it encounters Kia in the postseason. LG needs one win at the end of the season to catch up with Samsung, which is 2.5 games behind Samsung.
The LG Twins foretold Hernandez as its starting pitcher. After releasing Kelly, who played for six seasons at the end of July, Hernandez has posted an ERA of 3.52 with one win and one hold in five appearances. Throwing 23 innings, Hernandez has 19 hits, four homers, 28 strikeouts, and six walks.
Hernandez took the mound as a bullpen pitcher against Jamsil KT on August 29 and recorded one hit and three strikeouts in one inning. Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop temporarily used Hernandez as a bullpen pitcher due to the low number of must-win teams in the bullpen. It was a temporary measure because LG played only four games last week.
Hernandez had planned to wait for the bullpen session in the game against KT on Sunday, but pitched one full inning as he showed signs of arm muscle clumping, ending his bullpen session with one game. He will take four days off and start the game against KIA.
LG’s main bullpen pitchers Yoo Young-chan and Kim Jin-seong are not showing good performance against KIA. They had many come-from-behind losses. Closing pitcher Yoo Young-chan showed poor performance against KIA with two losses and three saves with an 8.10 ERA in six games. He suffered two fatal come-from-behind losses. Yoo Young-chan made six blon saves this season, and three of them were his failed saves against KIA. 스포츠토토
Kim Jin-seong, a must-winner, also posted an earned run average of 6.35 with one loss and four holds in seven games against KIA, the highest in ERA among the nine teams. Kim Jin-seong, who allowed runs in the last four consecutive games, rested well for five days.
“It’s weird if we meet KIA and Kiwoom this year,” manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said. Attention is focusing on whether he will be able to win the final showdown.