Watching the Korean Series between Samsung and LG on TV, ‘Elin’ cried in the ninth inning when her trusted closer Lee Sang-hoon gave up a tying three-run shot to Lee Seung-yup and Choi Won-ho hit a game-winning solo shot to Ma Hae-young.
He refused to go to school the next day and was scolded by his mother.
Exactly 21 years later, on November 10, 2023.
He takes the mound in Game 3 of the Korean Series.
He’s Im Chan-kyu of the LG Twins.
When he clinched the regular season title, he recalled his time as a third-grader in elementary school and said, “29 years later, I won the regular season and went to the Korean Series, so it seems like a romance and a drama in itself.”
“I don’t think there will be any more drama in my life,” he said, expressing his excitement at the life of a successful hero.
Im Chan-kyu will start Game 3 of the Korean Series against the KT Wiz at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on Tuesday.
KT’s starter will be foreign pitcher Wes Benjamin, as announced by manager Lee Kang-cheol.
Twenty-one years ago in 2002, on the same day and at the same venue, LG wrote the drama in Game 2 to win their first Korean Series.
Can Im “Elin” Chan-kyu write another drama this time?
After a heartbreaking game, Im Chan-kyu personally lifted LG to the Korean Series.
LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said that Im played a big role in the team’s struggles in April and May.
Im was a long reliever at the start of the season, but he came in as a substitute starter and pitched so well that he became a domestic ace. 안전토토사이트
After struggling with increased velocity in the past two years, Im changed his strategy to using his tunneling pitches and fighting the count, which he was good at before.
With his increased velocity, he won 14 games, ranking third overall in wins and first among Korean pitchers.
Against KT, he was weak. In four appearances (three starts) this season, he went 1-1 with a 6.61 ERA.
After pitching two innings and giving up three runs in Suwon on April 2 as a middle reliever, Lim was the winning pitcher in Jamsil on May 17, giving up two runs on eight hits in five innings with two walks and two strikeouts in the team’s 7-3 win.
After being the losing pitcher on July 5 in Jamsil, giving up six runs (four earned) on eight hits, one walk, and four strikeouts in five innings in a 4-8 loss, Lim started the second half of the season on July 26 in Suwon, giving up three runs on six hits, four walks, and two strikeouts in 4⅓ innings.
His team was 1-3 at the time, and he was in danger of becoming the losing pitcher, but he scored two runs in the eighth inning to tie the game and avoid the loss.
The game was a 3-4 LG loss.
His record against KT is 1-1 with a 5.65 ERA in three starts. He hasn’t given up a home run, but his strikeout-to-walk ratio is quite high at 3.5-to-2.
The fact that Kim Min-hyuk is only pinch-hitting due to injury is a good thing for Im.
He went 4-for-7 with a .571 batting average. He also hit one double and one triple.
Kang Baek-ho was also good, going 3-for-7 (.429 batting average), but he’s out with an injury.
Top hitter Kim Sang-soo was also good, going 4-for-7, and Hwang Jae-gyun went 3-for-6 with a double.
Alford went 3-for-10 with three RBIs and Park Byung-ho went 2-for-5 with two RBIs.
He is LG’s best pitcher. They were so weak against Benjamin that LG manager Yeom Kyung-yup said, “We didn’t lose to KT, we lost to Benjamin.”
In five appearances against LG, Benjamin went 4-0 with a 0.84 ERA.
His strikeout-to-walk ratio is just 1 for 6. LG has a team batting average of 3.1 against KT, but Benjamin hasn’t been able to hit them at all.
From the opener on April 1 (11-6 win) with 6 innings of 2 hits and 1 run (unearned), to May 16 (12-7 win) with 6 innings of 5 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts and 5 runs (1 earned), to July 5 (8-4 win) with 5⅓ innings of 4 hits, no walks, 6 strikeouts and 2 runs (1 earned), On July 25 (4-1 win), he won four straight games, including eight innings of three-hit, one walk, nine strikeouts, and no earned runs, but was unable to get the win in Suwon on September 6, despite pitching seven innings of five-hit, one walk, four strikeouts, and one earned run.
He came off the mound trailing 0-1 with no support from the offense.
Furthermore, he was 0-1 in the top of the ninth inning and was in danger of becoming the first pitcher to lose a game against LG.
However, Hwang Jae-gyun’s game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth tied the game at 4-4.
Benjamin was able to meet LG with only good memories.
It was also good in the playoffs.
He started Game 2 and gave up three runs on four hits (one home run) with two strikeouts in five innings, and in Game 5 he gave up two runs (one earned) on five hits with five strikeouts in five innings.
In both games, he pitched a clean four-hitter.
After throwing 83 pitches in Game 5, I’m going to start Game 3 of the Korean Series on four days’ rest.
He’s ready to pitch normally.
“We have to win the Korean Series, but regardless of the outcome, I want to keep every single pitch in my head, so I’ll do my best to prepare,” Lim said.
It’s a game that will decide the course of the series, so it’s likely to stick in his mind.
In the history of the Korean Series, the first team to win the second game from a 1-0 lead (including ties) has an 85% chance of winning the series.