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The Dodgers beat the New York Mets 9-0 in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (four wins out of seven) at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California on the 14th (Korea time). In MLB postseason history, there is a 64% chance that the team that won Game 1 of the best-of-seven series will be the final winner (123 times out of 191).

The Dodgers, which showed off powerful pitching capability, boasted the prowess of its team shut out for three consecutive postseason games following games (8-0 win) and games (2-0 win) of the Division Series against the San Diego Padres. It is the third record in MLB history after the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants) in 1905 and the Baltimore Orioles in 1966.

The Dodgers also recorded 33 consecutive scoreless innings from the third inning of Game 3 of the Division Series on the 9th to tie Baltimore’s record of most consecutive scoreless innings in a single postseason set in the 1966 World Series.

If the Dodgers allow more than one scoreless inning in the second game on Saturday, a new record will be created. The Dodgers announced Walker Buehler and the Mets announced Sean Manaea as starting pitchers in the second game, respectively.

The two teams were determined in the starting pitcher competition. Dodgers starter Zack Flaherty completely dominated the Mets’ lineup by allowing two hits and six strikeouts during seven innings. In contrast, Mets starter 롤토토 showed sluggish performance by allowing four walks during one and one third of innings, allowing two hits and three runs.

The first face-off between Ohtani and Senga, who drew attention not only from the U.S. but also from Japan, ended in a bland manner. Ohtani, who started as the first designated hitter on the day, grounded out to second base at his first at-bat in the first inning. However, in the second at-bat with one out and runners on second base in the second inning with the Dodgers leading 2-0, he hit a cut fastball (146 kilometers per hour) at Sena’s first pitch, and hit a timely hit to the right. It was a blow that eventually brought down Senga from the mound.

During the regular season, Ohtani met with Senga three times, and garnered one hit and two walks, to get on base 100 percent. He continued to display strong performance in the postseason, never missing a chance to score. However, he was out after trying to steal second base during Freddie Freeman’s at-bat with two outs and a runner on the first base, and thus failed to steal a base for the first time in the postseason this year.

Following starting pitcher Flaherty, bullpen pitchers Dan Hudson and Ben Casparires pitched the remaining two innings together, allowing one hit and no run to complete the team’s shutout victory. Dodgers’ flagship hitters Mookie Betts (one hit and three RBIs from four times at bat) and Freeman (two hits and one RBI from three times at bat) also showed stellar performance.

Do we really have to trust “the one and only God”? The idea of the LG Twins’ bullpen pitcher lineup is faltering.

LG suffered a crushing defeat of 4-10 in the first playoff game held at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on Sunday. LG, which was engaged in blood clots in Game 5 of the semi-playoff, lost the chance to advance to the Korean Series, narrowing the gap between the two teams. In the best-of-five playoff series, the probability that the team that wins Game 1 will advance to the Korean Series was 75.7 percent (25 out of 33).

On the day, LG Twins’ starting pitcher Choi Won-tae collapsed. He collapsed by allowing seven hits (two homers), three strikeouts and five runs in three innings. When Choi went down the mound, the score was 1-5. Although the gap was four points, the game had just entered the middle of the game, and the game was over for a short period of time in the postseason.

The LG Twins deployed Yoo Young-chan, the closing pitcher for the regular season. Yoo treated his first batter Lee Jae-hyun with a foul fly and gave up an infield hit to Ryu Ji-hyuk, but overcame the crisis by using a double play by shortstop.

In the fifth inning, another team led by Kim Jin-seong, a two-run homerun, was deployed. However, Kim Jin-seong only had one out count, allowing Diaz to hit two-run homeruns. The gap widened to 1-7. LG used all of its de facto winning teams. Only one player, Elleage Hernandez, who showed off his fighting spirit by taking the mound in all five semi-playoffs, did not appear. Since then, he has deployed all of his bullpen pitchers, including Jung Woo-young, Kim Yoo-young, Baek Seung-hyeon, Lee Jong-joon and Kim Dae-hyun, but the final score was 4-10.

In five semi-playoff games, LG effectively managed the bullpen with Son Ju-young, the left-hander who led the team to victory in two games by playing Hernandez and Long Relief. Hernandez pitched in all five games and played seven ⅓ innings, while Son pitched in a total of seven ⅓ innings, including five ⅓ innings in Game 3 and two innings in Game 5. In the semi-playoff games, the bullpen played a total of 24 innings, with the two players responsible for more than half of the 14 ⅔ innings. The team accounted for more than 61 percent of the total.

However, in the playoffs, we cannot blindly depend on Hernandez and Son Joo-young. For now, Son will be the starting pitcher in the playoffs. Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop predicted Son as the starting pitcher for Game 3.

And Hernandez is tired for now. “The key point in running a pitcher in this series is not only starting a pitcher, but also whether the existing middle pitchers will play the role of Hernandez and (Son) Ju-young will be important,” Yeom said ahead of the first game. “Yoo Young-chan can pitch two innings like he did in last year’s 슬롯사이트 Series. Kim Jin-sung can pitch two innings as well. Two players can play multiple innings, and the rest of the players try to lead one inning at a maximum. We will make the most of our resources such as Baek Seung-hyeon and Kim Yoo-young to put in the possibility of blocking them.”

“He can have five out-counts in the back and one out in the eighth inning,” he said. “Only one player, Elly, is tired during the semi-playoff. Existing middle pitchers have had a good rest. They must feel like they are starting the post-season. Their role will be important.”

However, other bullpen pitchers except Hernandez did not leave a strong impression in the first round game of the playoffs. This is the management of the bullpen, which cannot afford to watch Hernandez until any time. It is time for LG’s bullpen to make efforts.

The Lotte Giants, who failed to fill the shortstop hole even after investing a large amount of money, are deeply worried. Although they have found a new starting player named Park Seung-wook (31), their weaknesses still stand out compared to other teams.

Lotte signed a four-year free agent contract with Roh Jin-hyuk, an offensive shortstop who hit double-digit homers (2018-2020) for three consecutive seasons in November 2022. Contrary to expectations, Roh suffered the worst slump. Roh, who had a monthly batting average of 0.154 between March and April, was demoted to the second tier.

After Noh Jin-hyuk was notified of the second division, Park Seung-wook and Lee Hak-joo began to take turns in shortstop positions. It was Park Seung-wook who survived to the end of the two players. Lee Hak-joo was canceled from the first division on July 13, and Park Seung-wook became Lotte’s main shortstop because he was not called up until the end of the season.

Park had a batting average of 0.262, seven homers, 53 RBIs and an OPS of 0.716, in 139 games in the 2024 season. He left a meaningful record in offense. Since his debut as a pro, he has played the most games in the first team, hit a career-high seven homers and recorded his first 100 hits (106 hits). Noh Jin-hyuk and Lee Hak-joo were sluggish, but they struggled in their own way.

The problem was defense. Having revealed his weakness in defense, Park did not appear to be the main player. With 23 errors in the 2024 season, Park tied for second with Park Chan-ho (KIA Tigers) and Park Sung-han (SSG Landers) in overall error category.

Park Chan-ho (1,120 ⅓ innings) and Park Sung-han (1,115 innings) worked over 1,100 defensive innings, recording 23 errors and making up some of their disappointment in defense with a batting average of 300. Park, on the other hand, recorded 22 errors in 833 innings as a shortstop, and frequently made fatal errors at important moments.

Unless conditions change for the next season, the main shortstop is highly likely to be Park Seung-wook. There is a very small chance that Lee Hak-joo and Roh Jin-hyuk, who are in their mid-30s, will rebound in the 2025 season. Young players who can play shortstop Kim Se-min and Han Tae-yang will finish their military service, but no guarantee of their performance in the first division can be guaranteed. Rookie Lee Ho-joon has no experience playing in full-time seasons.

Lotte’s shortstop position worries have plagued the team for a long time. Lotte, which could not find a stable shortstop on either side of offense or defense, started to solve shortstop position concerns with a foreign hitter card called Dixon Machado in 2020. Machado batted in the late-2020 (0.280 in 2020 and 0.279 in 2021) during the two seasons (2020-2021), and the number of errors was only 21 (10 in 2020 and 11 in 2021).

꽁머니‘s presence has stabilized Lotte’s defense as a whole. Rodong, who had ranked first in league errors for two consecutive seasons in 2018 (117) and 2019 (114), suffered a setback in 2020 by ranking at least fourth (94), and at least first in 2021 (85). However, Lotte eventually ended up accompanying Machado because it lacked the offensive power to use foreign batter slots as shortstop. After that, in 2022, Lotte remained at the bottom of its team’s shortstop batting average (0.209) and OPS (0.556), falling back into a swamp of shortstop agony. As a result, he made a bold investment in FA Noh Jin-hyuk, but the problem still remains unresolved.

If Lotte wants to solve its shortstop problem, it can enter the FA market again. Shim Woo-joon of KT Wiz, who has strong defense, will become an FA after the end of this season. However, chances are high that key relief pitchers Kim Won-joong and Koo Seung-min will apply for the FA. Both players performed below expectations in the 2024 season, but since there is no suitable substitute, they should strive to crack down on the players rather than recruit them from outside.

Lotte, which ranked second after the KIA Tigers (146 errors) with 123 mistakes, needs to stabilize its defense in order to qualify for the fall baseball next season. To this end, the shortstop issue, dubbed the “flower of defense,” should be resolved, but the 2024 season proved that it is too much to trust Park. Although the team has revealed its limitations, the wrinkles are getting bigger due to lack of resources to replace Park.

It was an appearance that will be imprinted on baseball fans for a long time.

This is the story of Samsung pitcher Kim Yoon-soo, who appeared “caught” by his colleague Kim Tae-hoon at the moment of the crisis and struck out the opponent’s best hitter with three pitches.

Kim Yoon-soo, who met with a KBS reporter ahead of the second game, explained the situation at the time, “I couldn’t get the message of who was going out because the surroundings were very noisy. Everyone was busy, and I ran out in a hurry after (Kim) Tae-hoon caught me and confirmed me.”

“My friends sent me a lot of videos (shorts),” Kim said with a smile. “My face looked quite funny. My fans left a lot of comments, so I had fun looking through them.”

The appearance made fans laugh, but Kim Yun-soo surprised fans with the appearance.

The game has narrowed down to three points. At a desperate juncture when a single homerun is tying the game, Kim defeated LG Austin, the best hitter in the league, with three balls. Austin’s three bat wasted no time, and the speed was 155 km/h.

“In the last LG match in the regular league, I gave Austin a score while throwing a breaking ball in the same 0-2 count,” Kim Yoon-soo said. “I remember (Park) Byung-ho saying, ‘You have to play with a fast ball unconditionally,’ so I threw a fast ball boldly.”

Kim Yoon-soo, who blocked LG’s counterattack with an impactful pitch, also took the mound in the next inning (8th inning), but was withdrawn after giving up a hit ball to leadoff hitter Kim Hyun-soo.

“I thought I should catch the leadoff hitter somehow, but I made another mistake,” said Kim Yoon-soo, who expressed regret and said, “I thought I should throw more carefully so as not to make such a mistake in the next game and next 꽁머니 League.”

When asked by a reporter, “How do you want to appear next time?” Kim Yoon-soo, who answered, “I just want to appear normal,” strengthened his will for the upcoming game, saying, “I want to make a pitch that doesn’t allow a run next time.”