Seoul: LG Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said it took a complete team effort Thursday to pull off a stirring come-from-behind win over the Hanwha Eagles in the Korean Series. Down 4-1 going into the ninth inning, the Twins scored six times for a 7-4 victory in Game 4 of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) championship series. The Twins now lead the best-of-seven battle 3-1, a win away from their second title in three years.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Park Dong-won hit a two-run homer for the opening salvo of the big inning, and Kim Hyun-soo’s two-out, two-run single put the Twins ahead for the first time in the game. They tacked on two more runs for good measure. “Hyun-soo is a pillar of this team, and he pounced on a mistake (by reliever Park Sang-won) to capitalize on such a huge opportunity,” Youm said. “And of course, Dong-won’s two-run home run gave us life in the ninth inning.”

Youm noted that the extra runs after Kim’s big hit gave closer You Young-chan some much-needed breathing room for the ninth inning. You had been charged with the loss after allowing four earned runs in only 1/3 of an inning Wednesday night as the Eagles scored six runs in the eighth inning for a 7-3 victory. “Young-chan was able to shake off that tough game from last night and looked really solid in getting the save today,” Youm said. “That should have a positive impact on the team for the rest of the series.”

Youm said he was most pleased with the way the Twins rallied for this win without having to use their high-leverage relievers — minus You — who had been taxed through the first three games of the series. The Twins had nothing going against the Eagles’ starter, Ryan Weiss, and when the Twins were trailing earlier in the game, Youm opted to save relievers in his circle of trust — the likes of Song Seung-ki, Kim Jin-sung and Kim Young-woo — for later games.

Youm was essentially willing to punt this game, believing that the Twins would still have a chance to win two more games to ultimately win the championship. “If we had used our top relievers and still lost, then it would have presented a huge problem for us because middle relief has been our weak point all year,” Youm said. “Our hitters stayed locked in through later innings and turned the deficit into a victory. They did me a huge favor tonight.”

On the flip side, the Eagles used their top relievers, and they suffered the kind of a meltdown that can cost a team a championship. After Weiss gave them 7 2/3 dominant innings, reliever Kim Beom-su allowed an inherited runner to score. Closer Kim Seo-hyeon, whose late-inning struggles in the second half of the season are well documented, got the final out of the eighth inning but served up the two-run bomb to Park in the ninth.

“We played really well, and we really should have won this game,” Kim said. “It’s a big shame that we lost the lead so late in the game.” Some 24 hours after the Eagles pulled off a comeback, the Twins returned the favor, leading Kim to lament, “This is why baseball is so difficult to figure out.”

Kim rejected the notion that he should not keep turning to Kim Seo-hyeon in save situations, given his recent trouble. “People speak with the benefit of hindsight,” the manager said. “He did get out of the eighth-inning jam.” The manager said it will be all-hands-on-deck for his team in Friday’s Game 5, the first elimination game of the series. “We’ve been pushed to the brink, and we have to get every available pitcher ready to go,” he said.