SSG secured 5th place in the standings, while NC broke a three-game winning streak
The SSG Landers of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) continued their march toward a postseason ticket with a valuable three-game winning streak at the end of the season.
SSG rallied from a 0-5 deficit to win 9-7 at home against the NC Dinos of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League on Wednesday at SSG Landers Field in Incheon.
With the win, SSG consolidated its fifth-place position and took a step closer to securing a wild-card spot.
The early game was filled with bad news for SSG.
SSG’s Lee Jung-bum, who started in left field, injured his knee while fielding a hit by Kwon Hee-dong in the first inning and was immediately rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
SSG starter Roenis Elias was pounded for eight hits and a home run by the third inning and left the game with five runs (four earned) after complaining of back pain.
After being stymied by NC starter Shin Min-hyuk and falling behind 0-5 through four innings, SSG started its comeback in the fifth inning.
The bottom four batters in the lineup, from Kim Sung-hyun in the sixth spot to Ha Jae-hoon, Kim Min-sik, and Kim Chan-hyung, combined for four consecutive hits.
After back-to-back singles by Kim Sung-hyun and Ha Jae-hoon put runners on first and second, SSG scored a run on a single by Kim Min-sik and another run on a double by Kim Chan-hyung.
Oh Tae-gon was hit by a pitch to cut the lead to 3-5.
In the sixth, Choi Joo-hwan singled and Guillermo Heredia doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs, then Han Yoo-seom’s sacrifice fly and a wild pitch easily tied the game.
With the bases loaded on three consecutive walks, Kim Chan-hyung’s grounder to third base was picked off by the NC catcher, 먹튀검증 who threw to first base for a double play.
This allowed Ha Jae-hoon, the second baseman, to come home to tie the game, and Choo Shin-soo followed with an RBI single to put runners on second and third.
SSG sealed the win with Ha’s seventh home run of the season in the eighth inning.
NC fell into a four-game losing streak due to a mound collapse.
After scoring three runs in the first inning on Park Gun-woo’s sacrifice fly and consecutive singles by Jason Martin and Kwon Hee-dong, NC seemed to have an easy time of it in the third inning when Kwon hit his seventh two-run home run of the season.
However, the batting lineup froze from then on and committed a series of errors.
NC scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a Park Gun-woo single and a Park Han-yeol push single, but it was not enough to tie the game.