Seoul: The Kiwoom Heroes eked out a 4-3 win over the LG Twins to close out the first half of the 2025 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season in Seoul on Thursday. The Heroes blew a 3-0 lead before pulling ahead again in the top ninth thanks to Stone Garrett's two-out single in front of 16,628 fans at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. Closer Ju Seung-woo then pitched a scoreless ninth inning to secure the narrow win.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Heroes improved to 27-61-3 (wins-losses-ties) but they are still in last place. The Twins fell to 48-38-2 but remained in second place entering the All-Star break. After the All-Star Game on Saturday, the season will resume next Thursday.
The Heroes put up a three-spot against starter Song Seung-ki in the top of the first. Cleanup Choi Joo-hwan came through with a two-run double to follow Song Sung-mun's single and Lee Ju-hyoung's walk. After Choi moved to third on a flyout by Stone Garrett, Ju Seong-won brought him home with an infield single. The Twins responded with a run off starter Raul Alcantara in the bottom first, thanks to Park Dong-won's two-out single.
The score remained 3-1 in the Heroes' favor for the next five innings, though it wasn't for lack of chances by either side. The Heroes failed to add to their lead after loading the bases with two outs in the top fourth, and stranded a runner at second with one out in the fifth. The Twins wasted a leadoff double by Park Dong-won in the bottom fourth and a one-out single by Kim Hyun-soo in the sixth.
The Twins then tied the game in the bottom seventh thanks to an unlikely source of power. With a runner at first and Alcantara having struck out the previous batter, rookie Park Gwan-woo stepped in as pinch hitter for only his third career plate appearance. At a 1-2 count, Park turned on a slider and deposited it into the seats in right field for the game-tying two-run homer. It was Park's first career home run and also gave him his first pair of RBIs. The Twins loaded the bases later in the same inning, though Park Dong-won flied out to left to end that rally.
The Heroes regained their lead with two outs in the top ninth. With runners at first and second, Garrett punched a single through the hole on the right side to cash in Song for the tiebreaking run. Ju then pitched around a two-out single for his 13th save of the season.
Elsewhere in the league, the Hanwha Eagles walked off the Kia Tigers 3-2 with two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul. Moon Hyun-bin's go-ahead single with two outs completed a three-game sweep for the Eagles, who finished the first half with the best record in the KBO at 52-33-2. With their sixth straight win, the Eagles have opened up a 4 1/2-game lead over the Twins. The Eagles will now get ready to host the All-Star Game on Saturday.
The Tigers, the 2024 Korean Series champions, had climbed from seventh place to as high as second place, but have dropped four straight games to fall to fourth place at 45-40-3. The Lotte Giants are still in third at 47-39-3, despite a 9-0 loss to the Doosan Bears at Sajik Baseball Stadium in the southeastern city of Busan. The Bears are in ninth place at 36-49-3.
The KT Wiz are now within a half game of the Tigers in fifth place, after beating the SSG Landers 4-2 to improve to 45-41-3. The Landers are in sixth place, a game back of the Wiz, at 43-41-3. The NC Dinos defeated the Samsung Lions 7-5 to close out the first half with their fourth consecutive win. The Dinos are now in seventh place at 40-40-5, the first time they've reached the .500 mark in winning percentage since May 27. The Lions, now in eighth place, have lost four straight games to drop to 43-44-1 - the first time they've gone under .500 since May 24.
The league drew 7,580,228 fans in the first half, topping 7 million before the All-Star break for the first time. It is already the sixth-highest total for a season, and the KBO is on pace to shatter the all-time mark of 10,887,705 set last year.