The professional baseball team LG Twins will face off against the NC Dinos on the 18th at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul.
LG lost to NC 2-6 in the previous game. Having lost the top spot, LG is now 1.5 games behind the leading Hanwha Eagles.
Starting pitcher Hernandez was ejected for hitting Park Gun-woo with a fastball in the 2nd inning, resulting in a headshot ejection. Due to the early exit of the starter, they had to operate the mound as a bullpen day. LG's batting lineup managed only 2 runs against NC's starter Riley over 6 innings and failed to capitalize on the NC bullpen after the 7th inning.
LG will have Shin Min-jae (second baseman), Kim Hyun-soo (left fielder), Austin (first baseman), Moon Bo-gyeong (third baseman), Park Dong-won (catcher), Moon Sung-ju (designated hitter), Gu Bon-hyeok (shortstop), Choi Won-young (right fielder), and Park Hae-min (center fielder) as the starting lineup on the 18th.
The core batting lineup needs to deliver. Austin, Moon Bo-gyeong, and Park Dong-won have not been performing well recently. In particular, Moon Bo-gyeong has remained silent with 6 consecutive games without a hit, having a batting average of .118 (4 hits in 34 at-bats) over the last 10 games.
In the last 10 games, Park Dong-won has also seen a drop in batting average to .167 (5 hits in 30 at-bats), while Austin's average dwindled to .176 (6 hits in 34 at-bats). Fortunately, Kim Hyun-soo has a batting average of .300 (10 hits in 33 at-bats) and has been decent with 4 hits in 10 at-bats, including 1 home run and 5 RBIs in the last 3 games.
LG's starting pitcher will be Chirinos. He has appeared in 14 games this season, recording 7 wins and 2 losses with an earned run average of 2.84. He has allowed 4 runs in 3 of his last 4 outings.
He has an earned run average of 2.45 in 2 games against NC, with 11 innings allowing 4 runs (3 earned), 6 innings allowing 2 runs, and 5 innings allowing 2 runs (1 earned).
[OSEN]