LG Twins Secure Series Win Over Kiwoom Heroes with 5-3 Victory

By Yoo Jee-ho SEUL, July 30 (Yonhap) -- The LG Twins rode a pair of long balls to come back from an early deficit to defeat the Kiwoom Heroes 5-3 at home in their latest South Korean baseball action Thursday night.

Cleanup Song Chan-eui hammered a lead-flipping, three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning, after Austin Dean launched a solo shot in the fourth inning before 20,159 fans on this humid, stifling night at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.

By winning two out of three games against the Heroes, the Twins clinched their first series win since the mid-July All-Star break. They still own the worst record in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for July at 6-12-0 (wins-losses-ties), a swoon that saw them fall from first place to third place, now at 55-42-0.

The last-place Heroes fell to 36-62-2.

A day after engaging in a four-hour, 23-minute marathon that featured 40 hits and 29 runs combined, the two Seoul-based clubs finished this game in a breezy two hours and 47 minutes.

The Heroes gave up three runs in the bottom of the first inning of Wednesday's affair, and then they returned the favor by putting up a three-spot in the top first Thursday.

A walk and a single put two runners aboard for cleanup An Chi-hong, who drove in the game's first run with a double off starter Im Chan-kyu. Two batters later, Kim Gun-hee then knocked in two more runs with a double of his own.

Heroes starter An Woo-jin cruised along early, holding the Twins to just two singles through the first three innings. Then Austin Dean led off the bottom fourth by crushing a solo home run that cut the deficit to 3-1.

The Twins took the lead for good in the bottom sixth. Their first two batters each singled off An Woo-jin. And Song, batting cleanup for the first time in two weeks, drilled a hanging slider and sent it nearly 120 meters into the seats in left field to make it a 4-3 game for the Twins.

"I tried to relax at the plate and didn't want to do too much," Song said. "In my earlier at-bat, An Woo-jin threw me a couple of sliders and I got a single off his fastball. So I figured he wouldn't throw me another fastball, and I was looking for a slider in the zone. I was lucky to make good contact there"

Park Hae-min then pushed the Twins' lead to 5-3 with a two-out RBI single in the bottom seventh, Im, after a wobbly first inning, kept the Twins in the game for the next five frames by limiting the Heroes to only two singles, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.

The bullpen took care of the rest. With a runner at second with one out in the top seventh, reliever Kim Jin-su got the two quick outs to end that threat. Then after Kim got in trouble by putting two runners on with one out in the eighth, Kim Jin-sung came on to get the second out before closer Son Ju-young recorded the final out to keep the Twins up by two.

Son then slammed the door shut in the ninth for his 21st save of the season.

The victory made Im the first 10-game winner of this KBO season.

"Pitchers have to be lucky to pile up wins, and I have been getting a ton of help from my teammates," Im said. "I know there are so many other numbers that evaluate pitchers now, but reaching double figures in wins still means something to starting pitchers. I am very grateful to reach that mark."