It was Park Se-hyuk who broke the Shock’s 22-inning scoreless streak and humiliation.
For the second day in a row, he was humiliated in front of a packed house. But free agent catcher Park Se-hyuk, who had been quiet throughout fall baseball, saved the day.
The NC Dinos went from heaven to hell. After returning home after two straight wins away from Suwon, they suffered a shocking second straight loss at home.
NC lost the fourth game of the playoffs against KT Wiz 2-11 on Wednesday at Changwon NC Park. NC, which lost 0-3 in the third game a day earlier after failing to capitalize on KT starter Ko Young-pyo, was swept by a lethargic batting lineup.
Cuevas, coming off three days of rest, threw well. But more than that, the NC batters were tired. “We played seven games in the postseason, but due to the competition for third place, we’ve been in postseason mode since the beginning of October,” manager Kang Myung-ho said before the game, emphasizing that the players were bound to be tired.
Encouraged by their two consecutive away wins, the Changwon NC fans filled the stadium for the second consecutive day, despite it being a weekday, to show their support for the NC players. However, the fans were left frustrated as they didn’t even see a decent offensive inning, let alone a win.
Despite the win, the NC batsmen showed signs of decline in game two. They didn’t score until the fourth inning of game two. Game 3 was scoreless through nine innings. In game four, the team didn’t score a run until the seventh inning, making it 22 consecutive scoreless innings.
However, the NC players couldn’t let their fans go home despite the huge deficit. In the bottom of the eighth inning, KT asserted their bullpen sovereignty, and they didn’t give up.
A lucky double by Oh Young-soo, followed by a single by Seo Ho-cheol, who had been hitless in the playoffs. No outs, runners on first and third. Park Se-hyuk came to the plate. Park signed a 4.6 billion won ($4.6 million) free agent contract with the NC before this season, but he lost his starting spot to junior Kim Hyung-jun, the Hangzhou Gold Medalist, this fall. Park, who wore a mask from the start of the game, came through 토토사이트 with a meaningful hit in the middle innings. Park’s first hit of the series saved NC from a sweep and ended their streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 22.
With the blood flowing, NC scored one more run on four hits in the eighth inning alone. If the team had traveled to Suwon with a 24-inning scoreless streak, the mood would have been drastically dampened, but the last two runs kept a small glimmer of hope alive. Park Se-hyuk, a veteran who had been struggling with his mind, showed good concentration.