The bottom-ranked Kiwoom Heroes have stunned the top-ranked Kia Tigers.
Kiwoom defeated the Kia Tigers 2-1 in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at the Gocheok Sky Dome on Thursday, thanks to Choi Joo-hwan’s walk-off home run.
The win avenged a loss to Kia the day before. Trailing 0-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Kiwoom tied the game on Lee Joo-hyung’s RBI single, and then sealed the victory in the ninth inning.
Choi Joo-hwan was the hero. With the score tied 1-1 and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, Choi took a four-seam fastball from Kia’s seventh pitcher, Jung Jung-young, over the right field wall for a grand slam. It was Choi’s 10th home run of the season and the third of his career.
Kia’s Kim Do-young, who is one home run away from becoming the youngest player in KBO history to join the 30-homer, 30-stolen base club, went 1-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts on the day. With the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning, he hit a big shot to the right-center field gap, but had to settle for a triple that hit the fence.
Kiwoom starter Ariel Hurtado pitched seven strong innings, allowing one run on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts, but was unable to get any offense to help him earn the win. Joo Seung-woo pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his third win of the season.
All 16,000 seats at the Gocheok Sky Dome were 안전놀이터 sold out for the game. It was Kiwoom’s 11th sellout of the season.
In Jamsil, the Lotte Giants defeated the Doosan Bears 12-2 to move up one spot to seventh place.
Lotte extended its winning streak to three games with the team’s fourth “all-starters hit” of the season. They pounded out a whopping 19 hits, with nine batters in the lineup getting at least one hit before the fifth inning cleanup. Jun-woo Jeon had a perfect 4-for-4 day with five RBIs.
Lotte left-hander Kim Jin-wook allowed three runs on five hits and one walk while striking out five in five innings to earn his fourth win of the season. Doosan starter Jordan Balazovic, on the other hand, suffered his second loss of the season after giving up four runs on nine hits in four innings.
In Daegu, the Samsung Lions extended their winning streak to three games with a 3-1 victory over the KT Wiz at home behind Won Tae-in’s late-game heroics. Sixth-ranked KT, which is chasing fifth-ranked SSG Landers, lost its fourth straight game.
Won Tae-in pitched 7⅔ innings, allowing one run on four hits to improve to 11-6 on the season. He moved into a tie for first place with Enmanuel De Jesus (Kiwoom Heroes) for the most wins.
