Seoul: In pursuit of their second Korean Series title in three years, the LG Twins will start their American ace Anders Tolhurst to open the South Korean baseball championship round this weekend. Their opponent, the Hanwha Eagles, will counter with their young fireballer Moon Dong-ju.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Game 1 of the best-of-seven Korean Series will start at 2 p.m. at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sunday. The Twins own the home field advantage and will host the first two games and then Games 6 and 7, if necessary, in the capital city. The Eagles will get Games 3 and 4, plus Game 5 if necessary, at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon.
Tolhurst, 26, joined the Twins as a replacement for Elieser Hernandez in August this year and went 6-2 with a 2.86 ERA in eight starts. The right-hander allowed just one earned run in 25 innings over his first four starts, a 0.36 ERA. However, he was tagged for 13 earned runs in 19 innings over his final four starts of the regular season for a 6.16 ERA. Tolhurst's final regular-season start was against the Eagles on Sept. 27, when he was charged with two earned runs on five hits in six innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
Moon Hyun-bin, the Eagles' No. 3 hitter, was the only player to get multiple hits off Tolhurst in that game, which the Twins won 9-2. Moon is fresh off a massive postseason series against the Samsung Lions, as he batted 8-for-18 with two home runs, 10 RBIs, and three doubles in five games.
Moon Dong-ju, 21, was Tolhurst's counterpart in that Sept. 27 game, and it ended up being Moon's shortest outing of the regular season. Moon was roughed up for eight hits and gave up six runs while retiring just two batters. He had a 7.04 ERA in four starts against the Twins for the season. The Twins can put as many as seven left-handed batters in their starting lineup, and they did most of the damage against Moon, with Kim Hyun-soo batting 4-for-9 with five RBIs and Hong Chang-ki going 3-for-4.
However, Moon enjoyed a memorable postseason debut by winning the MVP award of the previous series as a shutdown bullpen weapon. He struck out 10 Lions in six scoreless relief innings across two outings, including a four-inning masterpiece Tuesday to lock down a 5-4 victory. Moon will now return to the rotation after that 58-pitch outing.
In Korean Series history, the team that has taken Game 1 has gone on to win the championship about 73 percent of the time.