The “Seoul rivals” Doosan Bears and lg Twins will face off in autumn baseball. Where is the first team to laugh?
Doosan and lg will play Kyonggi in the first leg of the 2020 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League KBO Semi-playoff at Seoul Jamsil Stadium on the 4th.
The postseason confrontation between the two teams is only seven years since 2013. It is also the fifth meeting since meeting KBO Semi-playoff in 1993 and 1998 and the playoff stage in 2000 and 2013. In four series, the two teams each won two and lost two; in the last two series, Doosan is ahead.
Doosan finished third in the regular season and went straight to KBO Semi-playoff. 4th place lg won the KBO Semi-playoff ticket in the first game of wild card against Kiwoom Heroes on the 2nd. In the two teams' opponents this year, Doosan had a 9-1 draw and 6 losses.
Doosan, who had a longer break than lg, scored Chris Flexen as Cole Hamels. Raul Alcantara was also in the option, but decided to give him more day off considering that he was in the final Kyonggi of the regular season.
Flexen went 21Kyonggi this season, winning 11623 innings, 8-4, and earning an Earned run average 3.01; he boasted a superb appearance, especially in October. 5 Kyonggi scored 3123 innings, struck out 42 and struck out an Earned run average of 0.85. Before lg this year, he started at 1Kyonggi and won one victory with three runs in six innings.
lg will send Lee Min-ho, a high school graduate who was considered as Cole Hamels in the second game of the wild card, to KBO Semi-playoff Game 1. Lee Min-ho went on 20 Kyonggi (including Savior 4 Kyonggi) this season, playing 9723 innings, winning 4-4 and recording an Earned run average 3.69. Doosan had a 1 loss and an Earned run average of 2.57 before going 4 Kyonggi without a win.
Only two times in history have a high school graduate rookie won the first postseason Kyonggi. The main characters are Yeom Jong-seok (Lotte Giants) in the first game of KBO Semi-playoff in 1992 and Kim Myung-je (Doosan Bears) in the third game of the 2005 playoffs. It is noteworthy whether Lee Min-ho can be the third protagonist.
The KBO Semi-playoff will be held as a three-game winning streak, not a five-game winning streak, in the aftermath of the new corona virus infection (Corona 19). Attention is focusing on whether Flexen will continue his uptrend in October or whether Lee Min-ho will lead the team to victory in the first postseason appearance.