Unstoppable SSG Landers take Korean Series title

The SSG Landers beat the Kiwoom Heroes 4-3 on Tuesday to win the 2022 Korean Series, adding the championship title to a decisive wire-to-wire regular season win this year.

The SSG Landers celebrate after winning the 2022 Korean Series at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The SSG Landers beat the Kiwoom Heroes 4-3 on Tuesday to win the 2022 Korean Series, adding the championship title to a decisive wire-to-wire regular season win this year.

The Landers came from behind to edge out the Heroes at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, taking the series 4-2 with back-to-back wins when they returned home this week.

The action was few and far between on Tuesday, with all seven runs coming in two innings, on both occasions with the Heroes pulling ahead and the Landers immediately matching or surpassing them.

Choo Shin-soo celebrates after the SSG Landers win the 2022 Korean Series at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The Heroes drew first blood in the third when Im Ji-yeol hit a two-run home run over the wall to bring home Kim Hye-seong from first and take a 2-0 lead.

The Landers responded immediately, getting a couple of runners on base before a missed timed throw to Heroes pitcher Tyler Eppler covering first on what should have been the third out ended with a wild ball and two runners crossing the plate.

Things quietened down again after that action, with the fourth and fifth passing quickly and quietly.

Lee Jung-hoo kicked off the sixth with a solo home run to put the Heroes up 3-2. The Landers were quick to reply, stringing together a couple of knocks before Kim Sung-hyun batted in two crucial runs with a double.

That knock gave the Landers a 4-3 lead, and that turned out to be all it needed. The Heroes struggled to regroup over the last three innings, proving to have no answer as the Landers buckled down for nine quick outs.

SSG Landers ace Kim Kwang-hyun, who appeared as a closer in Game 6 of the Korean Series against Kiwoom Heroes on Tuesday, celebrates as the Landers win the championship title. [YONHAP]

Tuesday’s win was a far less dramatic repeat of Game 5 on Monday, when the Landers picked up five runs in the last two innings to come from behind and steal a win. That game ended in the most emphatic way possible, with 40-year-old pinch hitter Kim Kang-min hammering a walk-off three-run home run to end things in the ninth.

But as scrappy as the last two games may have been, there was always a sense of inevitability to this year’s Korean Series. The Landers, the first team in KBO history to win the pennant title without once conceding first place over the full 144-game season, always seemed destined to take the title, even if they didn’t always look especially comfortable doing it.

The win marks the Incheon club’s fifth Korean series titles, after 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2018, and the first since the club changed from the SK Wyverns to the SSG Landers early last year.

The SSG Landers players throw Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin in the air as they celebrate winning the 2022 Korean Series at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

The Heroes, who finished the regular season in third place, fought their way through two rounds of playoffs to earn their right to compete in the Korean Series. The Seoul club had hoped that momentum might help them past the well-rested Landers, but it wasn’t to be.

For the Heroes it’s another near miss as the club continues to wait for its first championship title.

Founded in 2008, the Heroes are the only KBO club never to win the Korean Series. They’ve finished second three times; in 2014, 2018 and now 2022. Over the last two years, the Seoul club has had to watch as the only two younger teams in the KBO each took their turn at the cup — the NC Dinos in 2020 and the KT Wiz in 2021.

With the Korean Series concluded, the final adjustment to the season standings to allow for playoff results see the Landers taking first place, followed by the Heroes in second, the LG Twins in third, the Wiz in fourth, the Kia Tigers in fifth and the Dinos, Samsung Lions, Lotte Giants, Doosan Bears and Hanwha Eagles trailing at the bottom of the table.

The Twins and the Heroes are the only teams to change place after the postseason — LG had finished the regular season in second place but lost the second round of the playoffs to Kiwoom.

The end of the Korean Series also marks the end of the KBO’s 40th anniversary season.

Founded in 1982 with just six clubs, only four of who survive to this day, the KBO held a number of events throughout the 2022 season to mark its 40th year, including naming a special lineup of KBO 40 Legends, featuring 40 of the greatest players ever to play in the league.

To mark the completion of the 40 Legends, who were gradually announced throughout the second half of the season, the KBO on Monday started sales of a special limited-edition 40 Legends range of merchandise, including jerseys featuring the names of the selected players.

The KBO's 40 Legends merchandise [KBO]

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]