November, the month of destiny, has finally arrived for the LG Twins of the Korean Baseball Organization.
On the first day of the Korean Series (best-of-seven), 29 years after their second win in 1994, LG manager Yoon Kyung-yeop said, “We are ready,” and expressed confidence in either the KT Wiz or NC Dinos.
LG, which clinched first place in the regular season and advanced directly to the KS for the first time in 21 years, took just three days off after the final game of the regular season on Oct. 15 and began preparing for the KS with a training camp at LG Champions Park in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 19.
After two blue-and-white games in Icheon to get a feel for the game, the team moved to Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Oct. 29 to pitch in one blue-and-white game and a practice game against the Sangsung from Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
The team will then play the sixth and final game of the training camp at 2 p.m. on Nov. 4 against Cheongbaeik.
LG is planning to open the final Blue-Black game for free to fans to raise the atmosphere of the game with the fans’ support.
“The players’ game sense is not a problem because they played a lot of games during the training camp,” said Yeom. “We will do our best to prepare for the Korean Series without getting injured and perform as we have prepared.”
“In the playoffs, luck also depends on NC, and NC players pray a lot,” said Yeom, who watches all postseason games on TV to study the strengths of the teams he will face in the Korean Series, “but if KT fights back in Game 3, it could be a different story.”
“No matter which team comes up, if we can play our own baseball, we have a good chance of winning,” he said, vowing to win the combined regular season and Korean Series.
After boldly parting ways with pitcher Adam Plutko, who had been rehabbing for nearly two months due to a pelvic contusion, Yeom introduced the starting pitching staff for Games 1-4 of the Korean Series in the order of Casey Kelly, Choi Won-tae, Lim Chan-kyu, and Kim Yun-sik.
The absence of Plutko, who has been an ace this year, threw off the starting lineup calculations, but Yeom expects the four pitchers to do their job well.
“We’re going to utilize our bullpen, which is our biggest strength, early on,” he said, outlining a plan for the Korean Series that doesn’t wait to go toe-to-toe in every game.
Unlike its rivals, who use 13 pitchers on their postseason rosters (30 per team), LG will use 14 pitchers.
The key “long man” in the bullpen will be Lee Jung-yong, a hard-throwing pitcher with a forkball. “We thought it would be better to use him in the bullpen in KS rather than putting him on the mound as a one-game starter,” Yeom explained.
Even in a big game like the Korean Series, Yeom doesn’t stop developing long-term players.
“We have 27 players who will play in the Korean Series, and the three who will lead the team, Kim Bum-seok and Son Joo-young, will be on the roster to experience big games for next season. Just watching these big games from the dugout gives them a lot of experience.” 먹튀검증