Kia Tigers pull off a dramatic come-from-behind victory.
The Kia Tigers won a nail-biting 9-8 victory over the Gwangju Kia Tigers in the 2024 Baseball World Series at the Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Monday. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Na Sung-beom hit a tiebreaking RBI single and Seo Gun-chang hit the game-winning hit. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak and gave SuSung a valuable one-game lead. Samsung Electronics extended its winning streak to six games.
Kia trailed 7-8 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Leadoff hitter Kim Sun-bin led off with a double to left-center field. Kim Do-young followed with an infield single to shortstop against Samsung closer Oh Seung-hwan to put runners on first and second with no outs. Na Sung-beom followed with a single up the middle to tie the game. Socrates could only manage an infield grounder, but Seo Geon-chang put the finishing touches on the game with a single that fell between the center fielder and second baseman.
Kia took down Gisun with one hit. In the bottom of the second, Na Sung-beom singled to center field. Socrates struck out and Lee Woo-sung flied out to right field, but Byun Woo-hyuk hit his fourth home run of the season, a towering arch over the left field fence for a 2-0 lead.
Kim Tae-goon followed with a double down the right-field line, but it didn’t lead to any more runs.
Samsung had a chance to score in the top of the first inning as Kim Heon-gon singled up the middle and Koo Ja-rook doubled down the left field line, but Park Byung-ho struck out and Lee Jae-heon fouled out to end the inning. Samsung was held in check by Yang Hyun-jong until the fourth inning. After Lee Jae-heon walked and Lee Sung-kyu singled in the first inning, Lee scored a run in the second inning with a clean single to left.
In the fifth inning, they broke the game open. After Kim Heon-gon led off with a single to right, Koo Ja-uk followed with a single to left. Park Byung-ho walked, but Lee Jae-heon tied the game with a single up the middle. 토토사이트 순위 A shaky Yang Hyun-jong gave up a walk to Lee Sung-gyu to load the bases. Ryu Ji-hyeok pushed a fastball into the middle of the plate on an unfavorable pitch for a two-run double.
Yang Hyun-jong stayed on the mound. He went 4⅔ innings, allowing four runs on seven hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Samsung added another run in the sixth inning against Lim Ki-young. After Kim Ji-chan led off with a single to center and stole second, Kim Heon-gon singled to center. After an error by the shortstop put runners on first and second, Park Byung-ho hit an RBI single to left to extend the lead to 6-2.
KIA tried to rally in the bottom of the sixth.
Kim Do-young walked and Na Sung-beom responded with a single to center. Socrates followed with a double down the first base line to score one run. Lee Woo-sung’s sacrifice fly to right field and Byun Woo-hyuk’s grounder to shortstop scored one run each to make it 5-6. Samsung starter Lee Seung-min allowed five runs on six hits with two walks and two strikeouts in five innings.
Samsung scored a run on an error by the Kia defense. Lee Sung-gyu drew a walk, stole second and Ryu Ji-hyuk laid down a sacrifice bunt. The next batter, Kang Min-ho, grounded out to third base. However, KIA third baseman Byun Woo-hyuk threw the ball to first base instead of home. The runner at third base was only halfway to home when he caught the ball. Lee Beom-ho kept his head down and Samsung scored a valuable run to take a 7-5 lead.
Kia pulled within one run in the bottom of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Na Sung-beom, but Samsung took another step forward in the top of the eighth off the foot of Kim Ji-chan. Kim Ji-chan and Koo Ja-uk singled to put runners on first and third, but Kim Hyun-joon struck out swinging. Koo stole second, and catcher Kim Tae-goon made the throw to second. The next batter, Kim Ji-chan, stole third. KIA catcher Kim Tae-gun failed to recognize the movement of Kim Ji-chan at third base and gave up the run.
In the bottom of the eighth inning,
Lee Woo-sung and Byun Woo-hyuk hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and third, and Han Jun-soo’s sacrifice fly made it 7-8, completing the comeback drama in the bottom of the ninth. Yang Hyun-jong was followed by Lim Ki-young, Choi Ji-min, Lee Joon-young, Kwak Do-gyu, and Jang Hyun-sik to keep the score to a minimum. Jang Hyun-sik, who struck out four, picked up the win. Samsung fell just short of the victory when Kim Jae-yoon gave up a run in the eighth inning and Oh Seung-hwan was pulled in the ninth.