Seoul: After posting the best record in South Korean baseball in August, the LG Twins won their first game of September on Tuesday, beating the Lotte Giants 3-2 at home in Seoul. Starter Yonny Chirinos twirled seven shutout innings for his second consecutive scoreless outing, before All-Star closer You Young-chan walked the high wire en route to his 20th save of the season for the first-place team in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) at Jamsil Baseball Stadium.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Twins improved to 77-46-3 (wins-losses-ties) and remained 5 1/2 games ahead of second-place Hanwha Eagles, who defeated the Kia Tigers on Tuesday. The Twins went 18-6-1 in August to overtake the Eagles at the top. The Giants fell to 62-60-6. They posted the KBO's worst record in August at 7-16-3. They sat in third place, five games out of first, at the end of July but finished August in fourth place, 13 1/2 games out of the top spot.
The Twins scored twice in the bottom third to open the scoring against starter Park Se-woong. After Cheon Seong-ho led off the frame with a double, Shin Min-jae cashed him with a double of his own. After a Moon Sung-ju single put the runners at the corners, Austin Dean brought in the Twins' second run with a sacrifice fly to center -- as center fielder Yoon Dong-hee made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Dean of an extra-base hit.
Park's counterpart, Yonny Chirinos, kept putting up zeroes on the board. Chirinos hit the first batter of the game, Park Chan-hyung, but promptly got Go Seung-min to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play. Yoon Dong-hee hit a two-out double but was stranded when Victor Reyes grounded out to shortstop Oh Ji-hwan, who made a diving stab and fired a strike to Dean at first base.
Chirinos pitched around a two-out single in the second inning and allowed just one baserunner over the next four frames -- a two-out walk to Na Seung-yeup in the fourth inning. The Giants showed some life in the seventh inning, when Reyes opened the proceedings with a single, but they failed to bring him home.
The Twins added an insurance run in the bottom eighth courtesy of Oh Ji-hwan's sacrifice fly, and that extra run proved crucial after You nearly blew a 3-0 lead. The right-hander loaded the bases with two singles and a walk, and Son Seong-bin knocked in two runs with a single to left to make it a 3-2 game. After striking out No Jin-hyuk, You walked Han Tae-yang to load the bases once again, before striking out Lee Ho-jun to secure the narrow win.
Chirinos threw 52 two-seam fastballs, along with 25 sweepers, 22 forkballs and only two four-seam fastballs. He moved to 12-4 and lowered his ERA from 3.47 to 3.32.