(LEAD) Once in last place, LG Twins make valiant playoff run before falling short

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By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Oct. 31 (Yonhap) -- At the onset of the 2014 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season, everything that could have gone wrong for the LG Twins did go wrong.

In 2013, the Twins had made their first postseason in 11 years. With the core of that club intact, they were expected to contend again.

Yet the Seoul-based club won just four of their first 18 games, and sat 10.5 games out of first place in mid-May. They suffered a five-game losing skid and then a six-game slide in April alone.

Manager Kim Ki-tai stepped down, and in came Yang Sang-moon, a former LG pitching coach who left the television booth to return to the Twins' dugout. In one of the most remarkable in-season turnarounds in the KBO's 32-year history, the Twins went 52-41-1 under Yang.

Still, they finished the season two games under .500 at 62-64-2, and clinched the final playoff berth despite losing on the last day of the regular season.

They were also 7.5 games behind the upstart NC Dinos, who reached the postseason in only their second season.

With their dynamic offense and effective bullpen, the Dinos were considered the favorites in the first round against the Twins. Yet the Twins clearly had other ideas and set the tone for the rest of the series by scoring six runs in the top of the first inning in Game 1.

They went on to eliminate the Dinos in four games, behind a surprising offensive surge by catcher Choi Gyeong-cheol, a career backup who was named the series MVP after going 8-for-15.

The Twins dropped the opening game against the Heroes 6-3, but evened the series with a convincing 9-2 victory, as unheralded starter Shin Jung-rak held the Heroes to a run over seven strong innings.

Yet it turned out to be the last victory for the Twins in 2014. In Game 3, Nexen shortstop Kang Jung-ho hit his first home run of the season, and the Heroes pounded out five hits in a crucial, four-run fifth inning. They took the game 6-2.

For the Twins, it was an ominous sign that the Heroes' bats were finally waking up. They had led the regular season with 199 home runs and 841 runs scored, and it wouldn't be long before they showed what they were capable of.

The Twins' worst nightmare materialized in Friday's Game 4, and their pitchers ran into a buzz saw.

The Heroes scored twice in the first inning, and added three more in the fifth on Kim Min-sung's three-run home run. Kang hit his second homer in as many days in the four-run seventh, and Kim knocked in three more runs with a bases-loaded double in the eighth.

Kim set a new KBO postseason record with seven RBIs, and Kang chipped in three RBIs against helpless LG pitching.

The window for the Twins to contend may be closing fast because they have an aging core -- only two players in Friday's starting lineup were younger than 30.

What the future might hold for the Twins was the least of concerns for their famously loyal fans, who helped the club lead the KBO in home attendance in 2014. Even with the game well out of reach in the last couple of innings, most of the fans remained in their seats, chanting the names of each player on the field and giving the team a loud standing ovation at the conclusion of the game.

As he stepped back out of the dugout for a post-game interview, manager Yang drew hearty cheers from the fans that had stayed around. He took off his cap and took a bow, and then brought out a sign that had hung in the LG dugout throughout the postseason to flash it before the fans.

It read, "We are stronger than we think we are." Perhaps no other words could better describe the Twins' valiant playoff run this year.

Yang said afterward he feels he's still enjoyed a fine season.

"We're going to work even harder to get ready for next season," Yang said. "We should try to win as many games as we can early next year so we won't have to play catchup all year."

Yang said even he didn't expect the Twins to get this deep into the postseason.

"I tried to improve the ball club slowly to make sure we wouldn't be embarrassed on the field," the manager added. "For next season, we'll try to build a stronger identity."

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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