LG Twins starter Song Seung-ki pitches against the NC Dinos during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 23, 2025, in this photo provided by the Twins. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 23 (Korea Bizwire) — A day after suffering their first losing streak of the season, the LG Twins bounced right back with a near no-hitter at home Wednesday.
Starter Song Seung-ki fired six no-hit frames, and three relievers gave up just one hit, as the Twins emerged with a 3-0 win over the NC Dinos before 17,828 fans at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
Relievers Park Myung-geun and Kim Jin-sung each threw a hitless frame to follow Song, before closer Jang Hyun-sik gave up a double to Kim Ju-won to begin the top of the ninth inning.
The Twins had thrown a combined no-hitter against the Samsung Lions on April 15. They came within three outs of becoming the first team to record two combined no-hitters in the same season.
The victory snapped the Twins’ first losing skid at two games, and they improved to 19-6-0 (wins-losses-ties), the best mark in the KBO. The Dinos dropped to 8-13-0.
The teams traded zeroes for the first four innings, though it wasn’t for lack of chances, especially for the Twins.
They put a runner on in each of those four frames against starter Logan Allen but failed to cash in any of them. Park Dong-won, the league leader in on-base plus slugging with 1.113 before this game, struck out with men at first and second in the bottom first, and then flied out to center in the same situation to end the bottom third.
In the bottom fourth, Song Chan-eui struck out looking at an inside fastball when the Twins had runners at the corners.
Park Dong-won did get an RBI in the bottom fifth in his third try with men in scoring position, and did so in an unconventional fashion.
Allen gave up two hits and hit a batter to load the bases for Park, who then hit a grounder to second baseman Park Min-woo. He tossed the ball to shortstop Kim Ju-won for the force at second, but Kim’s throw to first pulled first baseman Seo Ho-cheol off the bag. That allowed Park Dong-won to avoid a double play as Moon Sung-ju scored the game’s first run.
Though Song did not allow a hit, he still had to escape a two-out, two-on jam in the top of the second inning after a walk and a fielding error by third baseman Moon Bo-gyeong.
Song pitched around a two-out walk in the top fourth and again in the top sixth, each time snuffing out the Dinos’ would-be rallies with a strikeout.
He threw 94 pitches to match his career high set on March 27 this year.
Song offered five types of pitches at the Dinos: 52 fastballs, 16 changeups, 11 curveballs, nine forkballs and six sliders. And he used nearly every weapon in that arsenal to get his seven strikeouts — four on changeups, and one each on a slider, a fastball and a forkball.
Park Myung-geun took over from Song to work a clean top of the seventh inning. Then in the bottom half of that inning, the Twins gave themselves some breathing room.
With men at first and second, a balk call on reliever Choi Sung-young let both runners advance one base. Then pinch hitter Kim Hyun-soo came through with a bases-clearing double to right field corner for a 3-0 lead.
Reliever Kim Jin-sung struck out the side in the top eighth. Closer Jang Hyun-sik took the ball in the ninth, only to lose the no-hit bid.
He slammed the door shut after walking a batter later in the ninth.
Park, Kim, and Jang had also thrown an inning apiece in last week’s no-hitter to back starter Elieser Hernandez.
The Dinos handed out 10 free passes in the loss.
(Yonhap)
