LG’s postseason is on the edge after back-to-back losses to KIA in the Junior Playoffs, and the problem is not hard to name: Kim Do-young keeps changing the game. After dropping Games 1 and 2 in Gwangju, LG now needs to avoid one more defeat to keep its season alive.
That is why Kia Vs Lg is being searched now. The series has moved from a simple scoreboard story to a pitching problem, with Kim at the center of it. In Game 1, he hit a go-ahead solo home run to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning, then added a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth as LG lost 1-5. He was the difference in the kind of way that forces a manager to make hard decisions the next night, because once a hitter starts beating you with power, every pitch becomes a calculation.
LG tried to change that script in Game 2, and the result only made the dilemma sharper. Im Chan-gyu walked Kim after four straight pitches outside the strike zone in the bottom of the first inning, then Castro, Na Seong-beom, Kim Sun-bin, Han Jun-su and Ha Ju-seok followed with five consecutive singles and five runs. LG had tried to avoid giving Kim anything hittable, but the inning still turned into damage. Later, Kennedy got him on a groundout to shortstop in the second, Woo Kang-hoon issued another walk after five pitches in the fourth, and Kim Gang-ryul finally retired him on a fly to center in the seventh. By then, LG had already fallen 3-6.
That is the part that makes Game 3 so tricky for LG. Pitching carefully to Kim has not guaranteed safety, but attacking him has already cost the Twins in a series where one more loss ends their postseason run. Castro has also been productive, with four hits in seven at-bats, a.571 batting average and two RBIs, including a home run in Game 1, which only raises the cost of any mistake made to reach Kim or after him.
LG has announced KARAasco as its starter for Game 3 in Jamsil on the 20th, and that choice carries a clear test. He held Kim to no hits in three at-bats with two strikeouts during the regular season. If LG can use that matchup to keep Kim quiet without opening the door to the hitters behind him, the series stays alive. If not, the Twins’ run ends with the same question that has driven the first two games: how do you pitch to Kim Do-young without helping KIA anyway?
