adminThe Doosan Bears almost let a close win slip through their fingers with complacency.
Doosan won 7-4 against KT in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ at Jamsil Stadium on Friday. The Bears led 7-0 going into the seventh inning, but saw a late rally from their opponents.
On this day, Doosan was led by starting pitcher Brandon Waddell, who pitched a perfect game. He went seven innings, allowing just one run on four hits with eight strikeouts and no walks.
The bats came alive in between. The bats were able to capitalize not only on the opposing starter, Wes Benjamin, but also on the relief staff. With a 7-0 lead at the end of the seventh inning, victory seemed to be in sight.
With things looking good, Doosan sent Lee Hyung-beom to the mound in the top of the eighth to replace Brandon, who threw 91 pitches. Brandon’s previous high this season was 99 pitches (against the SSG Landers in Munhak on July 12), so it was clear that the game could have been won by another inning or two, but the bullpen was called upon. But then something went wrong.
In relief, Lee gave up back-to-back singles to Song Min-seob and Ahn Chi-young to put runners on first and second with no outs. He then gave up an RBI double to Anthony Alford for the first run of the game, 7-1.
Kim Kang-ryul, who took over for Kim Myung-shin, couldn’t get out of the jam. With runners on first and second, he gave up a sacrifice fly to Moon Sang-chul to make it 7-2. He then gave up a two-run homer to Hwang Jae-gyun to make it 7-4. In the end, Doosan made another pitching change and brought up Kim Myung-shin to close out the top of the eighth.
A comfortable seven-run lead had been narrowed to three runs, enough to qualify for the save. In order to avoid the horror show of losing a close win, the team needed to utilize closer Hong Gun-hee in the top of the ninth inning, and she pitched a clean final inning to preserve the win.메이저사이트
Doosan pulled starter Kim Dong-joo after three innings on the first day of the three-game weekend series (Game 4) and used a number of bullpen arms, including Choi Seung-yong (1 inning of scoreless relief), Kim Myung-shin (1⅓ innings of scoreless relief), Jung Chul-won (1⅔ innings of scoreless relief), Park Chi-guk (1 inning of scoreless relief), and Hong Gun-hee (1 inning of scoreless relief). With the bullpen bleeding, it was important for Brandon to pitch as many innings as possible to help the team stay in the game.
As it turned out, Doosan pulled Brandon a beat early. The crunch came soon after, with key bullpen arms Kim Myung-shin and Hong Gun-hee pitching back-to-back games.