LG Twins roar back into 3rd-place race after ending 8-game skid

The LG Twins’ eight-game free fall is over. Their chase for the No. 3 spot is not.

The Twins beat the NC Dinos 6-1 before a sellout crowd at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on Tuesday, while the Kia Tigers lost 5-4 to the Samsung Lions. The two clubs are level in games, but Kia remains third with a .5474 winning percentage, barely ahead of LG’s .5468.

LG wasted no time building a big first inning. Park Hae-min caught NC off guard with a bunt that pitcher Choi Sung-young failed to field cleanly, turning it into an infield single. Song Chan-eui then singled up the middle to move runners into scoring position.

Austin Dean hammered a three-run homer over the left-center-field wall for his 41st of the season. He is now tied with KT Wiz’s Sam Hilliard for second in the KBO, two behind Kia Tigers’ Kim Do-yeong at 43.

Moon Bo-gyeong added a solo shot, his 10th of the year, to make it 4-0. Lee Woo-sung pulled a run back for NC with an RBI single in the second, but Moon Jeong-bin answered with one of his own and pushed LG’s lead back to four.

LG Starter Park Si-won held NC to one run through five innings behind a fastball that topped out at 151 kilometers (93 miles) per hour. He gave up two hits in the sixth and left with one out and runners on first and second, but the outing still surpassed his previous career high of five innings against the SSG Landers on Sept. 30. Go Woo-suk retired the next two batters to strand both runners, which left the starting pitcher’s final line at 5 1/3 innings, five hits, two walks and hit batters combined, four strikeouts and one run.

LG extended its lead in the sixth. Song jumped on a fastball from Ha Jun-young and sent it over the left-field wall for his 16th homer of the season. It was also his 100th hit of the year, a career first.

Park Hae-min stole second in the second inning to become the fourth player in KBO history to reach 500 career stolen bases. He swiped another bag in the fourth to move within four of retired LG Twins outfielder Lee Dae-hyung, who ranks third all-time with 505. Park finished 3-for-5 with two runs and two stolen bases.

“Austin’s three-run homer gave us the early lead, and Moon’s home run helped swing the game our way,” LG manager Youm Kyoung-youb said. “When we needed more runs, Moon Jeong-bin delivered an RBI and Song added a homer to put us in position to win. Park Si-won did his job as the starter, and Go got us through a tough spot when they had a chance to close the gap. The rest of the bullpen finished the job.”

In Busan, the Doosan Bears stretched their winning streak to three and the Lotte Giants’ losing streak to three with a 3-1 win. Gwak Been of the Bears and Park Se-woong of the Giants traded six innings of one-run ball, but Kim Min-seok of the Bears finally broke the 1-1 deadlock with the go-ahead hit in the ninth with runners at the corners and no outs.

Gwak struck out 11 to raise his season total to 197, breaking Josh Lindblom’s franchise record of 189 strikeouts by a Doosan right-hander, set in 2019.

Lotte’s Victor Reyes added two hits to reach 201 for the season and became the first player in KBO history with multiple 200-hit seasons. Reyes had 202 hits in 2024.

KT, which has already clinched the regular-season title, routed Kiwoom 10-1 at Gocheok for its seventh straight win. Choi Won-jun added two hits to surpass 200 for the season, which made him the third player in KBO history to reach the mark. He is battling Reyes for the league hits title.

The Hanwha Eagles beat the SSG Landers 9-2 in Daejeon. Roh Si-hwan started the comeback with a solo homer in the second after Hanwha fell behind 2-0, and Park Jung-hyun followed with a two-run shot to put the Eagles ahead. The offense took off from there and turned the game into a rout. Starter Owen White earned the win after allowing two runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings.