Wiz walk off Twins to stay alive in KBO postseason

(Yonhap)

The KT Wiz walked off the LG Twins 6-5 in 11 innings Wednesday to stay alive in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason.

No. 9 hitters Sim Woo-jun delivered an infield single with the bases loaded in the bottom 11th before a sellout crowd of 17,600 at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul.

The Wiz scored three times in the bottom of the third inning to rally from a 3-1 deficit before a sellout crowd of 17,600 at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul. Cleanup Kang Baek-ho gave the home team a 5-3 lead with a solo shot in the bottom fifth.

The Twins rallied to tie the game with two runs in the top eighth, but the Wiz, after stranding a winning run in scoring position in both the ninth and 10th innings, finished off the game with Sim's dribbler up the middle, with shortstop Oh Ji-hwan and second baseman Shin Min-jae unable to handle the ball cleanly.

The best-of-five opening round is now tied at 2-2. Game 5 is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Twins' home, Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.

The winner of this series will go on to meet No. 2 seed Samsung Lions in the best-of-five second round, which begins at 2 p.m. Sunday at Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu.

For the second straight game, the Twins opened the scoring with a long ball in the top of the second inning. No. 7 hitter Kim Hyun-soo, mired in a 1-for-11 slump this series, drilled a slider from starter William Cuevas for a solo shot that put the Twins up 1-0.

On the very next pitch, Park Hae-min connected on a low fastball and deposited it into the seats in right to double the Twins' lead. It was Park's first career postseason homer in his 25th game.

The Wiz cut the deficit in half in the bottom half of the same inning with a homer of their own, as Moon Sang-chul led off with a solo shot off starter Dietrich Enns.

Moon had also hit a two-run homer off Enns in the Wiz's 3-2 win in Game 1 on Saturday.

The Twins regained their two-run lead in the top fourth thanks to Moon Sung-ju's two-out single.

But that advantage disappeared in the bottom fourth, when the Wiz put up a three-spot to seize a 4-3 lead.

Kang Baek-ho singled to lead off the inning and took second base when right fielder Hong Chang-ki bobbled the ball. Two batters later, Hwang Jae-gyun brought Kang home with a single.

Bae Jung-dae singled to keep the line moving, and Oh Yoon-suk came through with a game-tying single to left.

After a walk, Kim Min-hyuck, now facing reliever Kim Jin-sung, drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to right.

The ball wasn't hit particularly deep, but Bae made a mad dash home to just beat the tag at the plate and give the Wiz their first lead of the game.

The Wiz stretched their lead to 5-3 in the bottom fifth, as Kang Baek-ho smashed a solo home run. At 1-2 count, Kang drilled a hanging forkball from Kim Jin-sung for his first dinger of the series.

The Wiz wasted bases-loaded opportunities in the fourth and in the sixth, and paid dearly when the Twins tied the game with two runs in the top eighth.

With runners at the corners and Kim Hyun-soo at the plate, Wiz catcher Jang Sung-woo was charged with a passed ball when he couldn't hold on to So Hyeong-jun's two-seam fastball, allowing Choi Seung-min to score to make it a 5-4 game.

Kim then singled off the next pitch to cash in the tying run, picking up his second RBI of the game.

The Wiz had a winning run at third with two outs in the ninth and at second with two outs in the 10th, but failed to cash in each time.

They finally broke through in the 11th but did it the hard way.

Kang Baek-ho led off with a double to left against Baek Seung-hyeon, with left fielder Moon Sung-ju unable to make a diving grab on a ball landing just inside the line. The play was initially called foul but was overturned on the Wiz's challenge, with the replay clearly showing Moon had made contact with the ball in the fair territory.

The Twins elected to intentionally walk Kim Sang-su to bring a double play in order. Then on Hwang Jae-gyun's bunt, third baseman Moon Bo-gyeong threw to third trying to get the lead runner, but Kang slid in safely to load the bases for Bae Jung-dae.

Up against reliever Jung Woo-young, Bae hit a grounder to second baseman Shin Min-jae, who threw out the lead runner at home. Pinch hitter Cheon Seong-ho then struck out.

Sim ended the marathon of a game with a hit that ricocheted off Jung's glove. Shin and shortstop Oh Ji-hwan collided in front of the second base bag and neither came up with the ball, as Kim Sang-su scored the winning run to send the series to the deciding fifth game.

Wiz closer Park Yeong-hyun threw 3 1/3 perfect innings to earn the win in relief.

The winning manager, Lee Kang-chul, thanked Park for keeping the score tied so that the Wiz could rally in extra innings. This was already the fourth elimination game that the Wiz have won this month.

"These guys battled so hard standing on the brink of elimination," Lee said. "There's something about these players and elimination games. And I think luck has been on our side, too. We did better with two outs and bases loaded than with nobody out and bases loaded."

Lee's counterpart, Youm Kyoung-youb, said he was disappointed not to have finished the series when his team had the chance.

"We did a good job of pushing this game to extra innings, but came up just short," he said. "Now we'll go all-in on Game 5. We made it tough on ourselves by giving up runs immediately after scoring."

Youm said former starter Elieser Hernandez, who has appeared in all four games so far this series as a reliever, will be available Friday for the final game.

"He could go for about one inning," Youm added. "It will be all hands on deck."