The Samsung Lions are looking to make a late-season surge with a different look. Their record in their last 10 games is 6 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw. Samsung swept the Kiwoom Heroes for its third straight win.
Samsung won 10-6 away from home against the Kiwoom Heroes in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Tuesday.
With the three-game winning streak, Samsung remained at the bottom of the standings with 36 wins, one draw, and 52 losses. They closed the gap on ninth-place Kiwoom (41 points, 3 draws, 51 games) to three games. Kiwoom has lost two in a row. Kiwoom’s record in their last 10 games is 3W, 6L, 1D.
Samsung starter Baek “Baeksho” Jung-hyun returned after being sidelined for about a month with a sore left elbow (his last start was a five-run loss in three innings against SSG on June 23). Baek went 5⅔ innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with one walk and two strikeouts to earn his fifth win of the season.
Kiwoom starter Jang Jae-young, on the other hand, allowed just one hit in ⅔ of an inning, but was unable to complete the first inning after allowing four walks and two balls to the body, resulting in a headshot ejection. He was forced to take his third loss of the season (1-0).
In the top of the first inning, Samsung got on the board after Kim Sung-yoon led off with a bunt single in front of the pitcher, followed by Koo Ja-rook with a straight-up walk and Kang Min-ho with a seven-pitch walk. Pirella followed with a pushing single to center field, bringing home Kim Sung-yoon from third. Jang Jae-young then drew a walk to load the bases, allowing Koo Ja-uk to come home, and Kang Kang-ul drew a straight grounder. The next batter, Kim Dong-jin, struck out. The bases were still loaded. The eighth batter, Ryu Ji-hyuk, drew another walk, scoring Kang Min-ho from third. The score was 3-0.
The headshot situation came right after. The next batter was Kim Ji-chan, number nine. Jang Jae-young’s fastball (147 kilometers) hit Kim directly in the helmet. Jang was immediately ejected for head shot. This is the 18th ejection in the KBO this season. It was his eighth headshot ejection of the season. Luckily, Kim shook it off and walked to first base. Ha Young-min, who took over for Jang Jae-young on the mound, hit a two-run double to left-center off Kim Hyun-joon to extend the lead to 6-0.
Samsung scored three more runs in the second inning to put the game out of reach. With one out, Kang Kang-ul hit a triple to right-center field and Ryu Ji-hyuk followed with a single down the right field line. Lee Jae-hyun’s subsequent grounder to shortstop was misplayed by Kiwoom shortstop Kim Hye-sung, allowing Ryu Ji-hyuk to score from first base. The score was 9-0.
Keum got two runs back in the sixth on back-to-back RBI singles by Song Sung-moon and Lee Ju-hyung. They then scored four runs in the seventh to make it 9-6. Back-to-back singles by Dawson and Lee Won-seok with runners on first and second and a two-run single to left by Song Sung-moon cut the deficit to three runs. However, Samsung ended Kiwoom’s hopes of a comeback in the ninth when Koo Ja-rook singled up the middle with runners on first and second.먹튀검증
Kang Min-ho, who started as the No. 4 hitter and catcher, went 2-for-2 with a double, two walks and two runs scored. Kang Min-ho became the 31st player in KBO history to reach 900 career runs. Koo Ja-rook, Kim Sung-yoon, and Kang Kang-ul also had multi-hit games for the Samsung bats, which pounded out a total of 12 hits.
