Daejeon: The LG Twins scored six runs in the first inning, as they defeated rivals Hanwha Eagles 9-2 on the road Saturday to move within a win of clinching the best regular-season record in South Korean baseball this year. The Twins roughed up starter Moon Dong-ju for six runs on eight hits in the top of the first inning at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, en route to a convincing victory.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Twins improved to 85-53-3 (wins-losses-ties) with three games remaining in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), and their magic number to clinch the top spot in the regular season is down to one. They can take care of business by beating the Eagles in their series finale Sunday.
The Eagles, at 81-56-3, now trail the Twins by 3 1/2 games with four games to play. In order to snatch the top spot from the Twins, the Eagles must win out and have the Twins lose all of their remaining games. The top seed will receive a bye to the Korean Series and enjoy a break of about three weeks before the start of their postseason. The No. 2 seed will advance straight to the best-of-five second round.
With one out and a runner at first, the Twins hit four straight singles to score three runs. Moon's wild pitch brought in another run, and Park Dong-won landed the big punch with a two-run home run to put the Twins up 6-0. Moon was pulled with two outs in the first after allowing two more singles. He failed to get out of the first inning for the first time in his four-year career.
The Twins added a run on Austin Dean's solo home run in the top sixth and tacked on two more runs in the top eighth with Moon Sung-ju's two-run single. The Eagles got their only runs via Chae Eun-seong's two-run base knock in the bottom sixth.
The game was played in front of a sellout crowd of 17,000, the Eagles' 60th sellout of the season. By drawing 55,695 fans in three games total Saturday, the KBO reached 12,019,267 fans for the season. The league surpassed the previous single-season record of 10,887,705 on Sept. 5.