(LEAD) Bears defeat Dinos, clinch KBO postseason berth after rival’s loss

The Doosan Bears smacked three home runs, including a pair by No. 8 hitter Kang Seung-ho, as they defeated the NC Dinos 10-5 at home in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on Tuesday.

Moments after their victory, the Bears secured a postseason berth as the rival SSG Landers lost to the LG Twins 14-5. These results ensured that the Bears will finish no worse than fifth in the 10-team league regardless of their results in the remaining two games.

Kang slapped a go-ahead solo home run in the bottom of the second inning at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in the capital city, before delivering a two-run shot that extended the Bears’ lead to 4-1 in the fourth inning.

Jared Young added a two-run homer of his own in the three-run fifth inning, and the Bears’ bullpen put up zeroes in the final three innings. Kang Seung-ho of the Doosan Bears hits a two-run home run against the NC Dinos during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sept. 24, 2024. (Yonhap)

The Bears impr
oved to 72-68-2 (wins-losses-ties) to stay in fourth place, two games ahead of the KT Wiz, who beat the Lotte Giants 5-1 on Tuesday to improve to 70-70-2. The Wiz also have two games left.

The Landers have dropped two straight games after winning six in a row, and they’re in sixth place at 68-70-2, one behind the Wiz. They have four games remaining.

“It’s great to clinch a postseason spot in front of our home fans,” Bears manager Lee Seung-yuop said. “This has been possible because every player gave their 100 percent. We have two more games left in the regular season and then the postseason will be here. We want to have a good finish and ride that momentum into the postseason.”

In the KBO postseason, the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds will square off in the wild card game, with the higher seed needing just one win or one tie to advance. The lower seed must win two straight games, something that has not happened since the adoption of the wild card game in 2015. The Bears lost their wild card game last year to the Di
nos.

The Giants are out of the postseason contention for the seventh straight year. The Hanwha Eagles, after losing to the Kiwoom Heroes 5-4 Tuesday, will miss out on the postseason for the sixth straight season.

The top three spots are all locked up, with the defending champions Twins grabbing No. 3 seed behind the Kia Tigers and the Samsung Lions with Tuesday’s win.

The Dinos, eliminated from the postseason race last Thursday, fell to 60-75-2. This was the first game under interim manager Kong Pill-sung, who took over after manager Kang In-kwon was fired Friday.

The Bears will visit the Lotte Giants in the southeastern city of Busan on Thursday and finish the season against the Dinos in Changwon, just west of Busan.

The Dinos have the most games remaining in the league with seven.

Jared Young of the Doosan Bears (R) high-fives teammate Kim Jae-ho after hitting a two-run home run against the NC Dinos during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sept. 2
4, 2024. (Yonhap)

The Bears scored in the bottom first with cleanup Kim Jae-hwan driving in Jung Soo-bin, who’d drawn a leadoff walk and reached third after a sacrifice bunt and a groundout.

Seo Ho-cheol’s RBI triple tied the score at 1-1 for the Dinos in the top second, but then Kang came right back with his solo homer in the bottom half of that inning.

The Bears never trailed again the rest of the game.

Kang’s second long ball of the evening put the Bears up 4-1. Seo answered with a solo home run in the top fifth to cut the deficit to 4-2, only to see the Bears put up a three-spot in the bottom fifth.

Young’s line drive shot just cleared the right field wall to give the Bears a 6-2 lead. After a Kim Jae-hwan double, Yang Suk-hwan hit an RBI single to center to make it a 7-2 game and chase starter Lee Jae-hak from the game.

Doosan Bears reliever Choi Jong-in pitches against the NC Dinos during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sept. 24, 2024. (Yonh
ap)

The Dinos refused to go down without a fight.

With Bears starter Choi Seung-yong out of the game after five solid innings, the Dinos jumped on reliever Hong Geon-hui.

Cheon Jae-hwan greeted Hong with a single and Matt Davidson launched his KBO-leading 46th home run of the season to center, making it a 7-4 game. Kim Hyung-jun’s two-out RBI single brought the Dinos within 7-5 and knocked Hong out of the game.

The Bears then killed any hope of a Dinos comeback with two insurance runs in the bottom sixth.

Kang reached on a throwing error by third baseman Kim Whee-jip and advanced to second when the ball sailed into the bullpen. Jo Soo-haeng put down a sacrifice bunt back to pitcher Kim Tae-hyun, whose errant throw skipped past first baseman Davidson and allowed Kang to score.

After Jo was sacrificed over to second, Kim Jae-ho extended the Bears’ lead to 9-5 with a single. Kim picked up another RBI in the eighth.

After Hong’s implosion, the Bears’ bullpen held steady.

Right-hander Choi Jong-in worked 1
2/3 scoreless innings for his first career hold, while Park Chi-guk added 1 2/3 scoreless frames.

With his two homers and three RBIs, Kang extended his career-high marks to 18 home runs and 80 RBIs.

No.2 hitter Kim Jae-ho contributed two hits and two RBIs. He has six RBIs in eight games this month, after recording just five RBIs 47 previous games.

This was the Bears’ final home game of the season. The game drew 22,064 fans at the 23,750-seat stadium, as the Bears finished the season with a club record of 1,301,768 fans.

Fans of the Doosan Bears watch their team in action against the NC Dinos in a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sept. 24, 2024. (Yonhap)

Source: Yonhap News Agency