Moon Bo-gyeong of the LG Twins (L) celebrates after driving in a run against the Kia Tigers during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 4, 2025, in this photo provided by the Twins. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Cleanup Moon Bo-gyeong drove in four runs and No. 5 hitter Kim Hyun-soo chipped in three RBIs, as the LG Twins defeated the Kia Tigers 8-2 at home Friday in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).
In the season’s first meeting between the two most recent Korean Series champions, the Twins, the 2023 winners, erased an early 2-0 deficit against the defending champs at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in front of a sellout crowd of 23,750. They have sold out all six home games so far this season.
Twins starter Song Seung-ki gave up two runs in five innings for the first win of his KBO career at age 22.
The Tigers scored twice in the top of the first on Byeon Woo-hyeok’s two-out, two-run single off Song.
The Twins responded immediately in the bottom first. After Austin Dean drew a two-out walk against starter Yang Hyeon-jong, Moon smoked a line drive to center that went off the glove of center fielder Choi Won-jun. As the ball trickled to the warning track, Dean came all the way around to score and Moon advanced to third on a relay throw home.
Kim cashed in Moon with a single to center that made it a 2-2 game.
Kim then delivered a go-ahead single with one out in the bottom third and drove in Dean, who had led off that inning with a double.
Song, who tossed seven shutout innings in a no-decision on March 27, managed to keep the Tigers off the board for four innings after the shaky opening frame to earn his first career win.
A single and a walk amounted to nothing for the Tigers in the second, and Song pitched around a one-out double and a walk. In the fourth, Song gave up a pair of two-out singles but got slugger Na Sung-bum to line out to second baseman Shin Min-jae. In the fifth, Song stranded a leadoff single by Choi Hyoung-woo.
The Twins stretched their lead to 4-2 in the bottom fifth, thanks to Moon’s sacrifice fly that scored Dean, who had doubled with one out and then reached third on Yang’s wild pitch.
The Twins’ bullpen put more zeroes on the board, and then their bats iced the game with a four-spot in the bottom seventh.
They loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom seventh on three straight walks by reliever Hwang Dong-ha.
Against new pitcher Lee Jun-yong, Moon chopped a double down the first base line — off the tip of the leaping first baseman Patrick Wisdom’s glove — to bring in two runs for a 6-2 lead.
Kim Hyun-soo’s bloop single to shallow left put the Twins up 7-2. Moon then came home to make it an 8-2 game on a double play ball off the bat of Park Hae-min.
Twins reliever Jang Hyun-sik made his season debut against his former team and tossed a perfect eighth inning. Jang had spent the previous five seasons with the Tigers before signing with the Twins as a free agent in November. But he sprained his right ankle while taking a stroll during spring training in Arizona in February and missed the first nine games of this season.
With two doubles and a single Friday, the Tigers’ designated hitter Choi Hyoung-woo climbed to the top of the all-time list with 4,201 total bases.
He moved past Choi Jeong of the SSG Landers, who has 4,197 total bases but has yet to play this season with a hamstring injury.
(Yonhap)
