SEOUL– Doosan Bears’ designated hitter Jose Miguel Fernandez celebrates every hit with what he has said is a “sugarcane chop,” a nod to his former teammates from the Dominican Winter League.
The Cuban veteran had plenty to celebrate on Tuesday in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason, as he knocked in five runs in a 16-8 rout of the Kiwoom Heroes to secure the wild card.
Those five RBIs are a new record for a wild card game.
Fernandez went 3-for-5, and four other teammates also enjoyed a three-hit night.
That list includes No. 5 hitter Yang Suk-hwan, who also batted 3-for-5 with four RBIs. Yang had driven in just three runs combined in his nine previous postseason games.
Yang’s two-out, two-run single opened the salvo in the bottom of the first at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. Fernandez then doubled the Bears’ lead to 4-0 with a two-run single in the second.
Fernandez and Yang combined for three RBIs in a five-run fifth inning. Fernandez then picked up two more RBIs in the sixth, helping the Bears put up six more runs on the board for a 15-4 lead to essentially ice the game.
Now in his third season in Korea, Fernandez has established himself as a premier contact hitter and run producer. From 2019 to 2021, Fernandez has collected the most hits in the KBO with 566. He’s sixth on the RBI rankings during that span with 274. And now he has his signature postseason game under his belt.
Yang, too, finally had his breakthrough performance in the postseason, delivering just the type of game that the Bears had envisioned when they acquired him from the LG Twins in a March trade.
Yang enjoyed his best regular season ever in 2021, batting .273/.337/.490 with career highs of 28 home runs and 96 RBIs. He was also Doosan’s best hitter against Kiwoom pitching during the regular season, with seven home runs and 21 RBIs in 16 games.
Yang was held hitless in Monday’s first wild card game, as the Bears lost 7-4. But as the higher seed, the Bears got another crack at getting a tie or a win on Tuesday to advance to the next stage.
And Yang and the rest of the explosive lineup made sure the Bears took advantage of that.
Yang will now take on his former team Twins, with whom he spent five seasons. A year ago, he was in an LG uniform against the Bears in the first round, though he never got off the bench.
“I suppose you just never know how life plays out. I don’t think anyone would have predicted last year that I’d be playing a postseason game against LG in a Doosan uniform,” Yang said with a smile. “I think it’s going to be fun to play LG. We just have to win a couple of games, and we’ll try to score early and often.”
Fernandez said he wanted to put the disappointment from Monday’s loss behind him quickly.
“I was devastated with that loss, and I came out trying to win this game no matter what,” Fernandez said. “My teammates all felt the same way. The next series against the Twins will be quite interesting. We’re going to give more than our 100 percent.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency