The professional baseball SSG Landers, led by Oh Tae-gon's two home runs and Choi Jeong's 29th home run of the season, won a huge victory over the NC Dinos and continued the race to start the postseason at least a day late.
In a visiting game against NC in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Changwon NC Park on the 8th, SSG showed off its firepower, scoring 6 points in the 8th inning, and won 10-8 over NC. SSG pushed NC, which was in 3rd place, to 5th place and took 4th place. SSG, with a winning percentage of 0.529, is in 4th place, 1 league behind the 3rd-place Doosan Bears (winning percentage, 0.530) without a win.
The main character who led the SSG attack that day was Tae-gon Oh, the number one hitter. Oh Tae-gon, who reached base with a single from the first inning and scored first with Hanyu Island's timely hit, hit his fifth one-run home run of the season in the top of the fifth inning to take a 2-1 lead.
NC turned the game around with Park Se-hyuk at the forefront. In the bottom of the 5th inning, Park Se-hyuk made the game 1-run with a 1-run home run, and then hit a 3-run home run in the 6th inning to take a 5-3 lead. This is Park Se-hyuk's second consecutive home run in his career.
SSG showed concentration, scoring 6 points only after 2 outs in the 8th inning. With 2 outs and 1st and 2nd bases, 3 consecutive pinch-hit cards, including Ha Jae-hoon's 2-RBI double, Choi Hang's walk, and Kim Kang-min's 1-run, timely hit, were all successful. And Oh Tae-gon drew a three-run arch that immediately turned the game around from 6-8 to 9-6.
SSG hit a 1-run home run in the bottom of the 9th inning, putting a wedge in the win. Choi Jeong-eun, who hit his 29th home run of the season, approached league home run leader Noh Si-hwan (Hanwha Eagles, 31) by two.
SSG closer Seo Jin-yong took the mound in the 9th inning and maintained the victory, becoming the 9th player in KBO League history and the first individual to make 40 saves.
In Suwon, KT, led by William Cuevas' 12th win of the season, won 9-2 over the Hanwha Eagles for two days in a row. KT, which won with a record score of 17-0 the previous day, secured its second place by winning two consecutive games with the firepower of scoring 26 points over two days.
Cuevas shut out Hanwha's batting lineup with 2 hits, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, and no runs in 7 innings, and set numerous records, including 12 wins for the season, 14 individual wins in a row, and 10 wins in a row against Hanwha.
Cuevas, who played his first game of the season on June 17, has a final record of 18 games, 114⅓ innings, 12 wins, no losses, and an ERA of 2.60 in the 2023 season. Cuevas, who also won in his last appearance this season, finished the regular season with 12 wins, no losses, and a 100% winning rate, confirming the title of winning percentage leader.
This is the third time that the team has won the winning percentage title, which requires 10 wins in the regular season, without losing, after Oh Bong-ok (13 wins) in 1992 and Kim Hyun-wook (Samsung Lions, 10 wins) in 2002.
KT's fourth hitter, Park Byeong-ho, scored the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning and then made it 2-0 with a timely hit with one RBI in the third inning. In the 4th inning, with 1 out and bases loaded, a push-out walk led to a 3-0 lead, and in that inning, KT scored 3 more runs and ran away to 6-0, effectively solidifying the win.
KT added 2 runs in the 6th inning with Jang Seong-woo's 1 RBI and timely hit and Bae Jeong-dae's sacrifice fly, and in the 7th inning, pinch hitter Ahn Chi-young hit 1 RBI and timely hit. Byung-ho Park led the team to victory with 2 hits in 3 at-bats, 1 walk, and 3 RBIs.
In the game held at Jamsil Stadium, the Doosan Bears won a thrilling victory over the Lotte Giants, 2-1, by one point, breaking their two-game losing streak. Doosan regained third place thanks to NC's loss to SSG.
In a match between foreign pitchers, with Doosan using Brandon Waddell and Lotte using Charlie Barnes, it was Doosan who laughed first.
In the 4th inning, with the game tied 0-0, Doosan's leadoff hitter Yang Seok-hwan reached base with a double to right-center and Yang Eui-ji scored the first run with a single to left field. With Kim Jae-hwan's hit, first base runner Yang Eui-ji advanced to third base, and Kang Seung-ho's sacrifice fly drove home to score an additional run.
Lotte, which had been tied down by Brandon, scored one run in the 8th inning thanks to pinch hitter Lee Jeong-hoon's double and Ahn Kwon-soo's timely hit. In the 9th inning, with two outs, Yoo Kang-nam and Han Dong-hee's back-to-back hits put a runner on base, but pinch hitter Kim Min-seok struck out.
Doosan starter Brandon earned his 11th win (3 losses) of the season with flawless pitching, allowing 1 hit, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts, and no runs in 6 innings.
In Gwangju, the KIA Tigers won 2-1 over Samsung and maintained their momentum toward advancing to the postseason. 6th place KIA, who had two consecutive wins, chased 5th place NC by 3 games.
With KIA starting rookie Yoon Young-cheol and Samsung starting foreign pitcher Taylor Widener, KIA broke the balance first. With one out in the fourth inning, Socrates Brito walked, stole second base, and advanced to third base on Lee Woo-sung's infield hit. And it arrived at home when Han Junsu hit a timely hit.
Samsung, which had been tied up by Yoon Young-cheol without scoring a point until the fifth inning, brought the game back to square one with Ryu Ji-hyuk's double and Kang Min-ho's timely hit in the sixth inning.
In the end, the difference between victory and defeat was in the bullpen. KIA succeeded in getting on base in the 8th inning when leadoff hitter Kim Sun-bin got a hit from replaced pitcher Kim Tae-hoon. With one out and one on first base, Woo-sung Lee's double and Chang-jin Lee's intentional walk filled all bases, and pinch hitter Tae-gun Kim scored the winning run with a sacrifice fly.
Jeong Hae-young, who appeared on the mound in the 9th inning, struggled, giving up a hit and a walk, but managed a foul fly to Kim Dong-yeop at first and third bases with two outs and preserved the victory.
Jeong Hae-young, who recorded 20 saves in the season, became the 15th player in KBO League history to achieve 20 saves for three consecutive years.