SSG and NC, who were competing for 3rd place in the regular season, clash for PO position on the fall stage
For NC, the timing of Ace Peddie's appearance is key... SSG Kim Gwang-hyeon’s role is important.
SSG Landers and NC Dinos will engage in a ‘second war’ in October 2023.
SSG, which finished the 2023 Korean Professional Baseball KBO League regular season in 3rd place, and NC, which passed the wild card match, will play the semi-playoffs (quasi-PO) with 3 wins out of 5 starting on the 22nd.
They will face each other at SSG's home, SSG Landers Field, Incheon, on the 22nd and 23rd, and at Changwon NC Park on the 25th and 26th.
If a winner is not reached by Game 4, Game 5 will be held on the 28th.
SSG and NC spent each day like a war at the end of the regular season. 안전놀이터
The winner of the first 3rd place competition was SSG.
SSG defeated the Doosan Bears on October 16th and 17th, and NC lost to the KIA Tigers on the same day.
As the two teams had mixed fortunes in the last two games of the regular season, SSG took third place with a 1.5 game gap and advanced straight to semi-PO.
Unfortunately, they missed out on 3rd place, but NC won 14-9 in the wild card match against the Doosan Bears on the 19th, minimizing power loss and advancing to the semi-PO stage.
NC, which would have had to play another wild card game if it had lost that day, kicked Doosan out of the fall stage after just one game.
This is the second time in history that SSG and NC face each other in the postseason, six years after the wild card game in 2017.
In 2017, NC, which ranked 4th in the regular season and went into the wild card match with one win, defeated 5th place SSG (the club name at the time was SK Wyverns 10-5 in the first game.
SSG started with Merrill Kelly, who currently plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks in the U.S. Major League Baseball, but NC defeated the opponent with a home run by Na Seong-beom (currently KIA).
This year, SSG took first place in the semi-PO.
In the 2023 regular season, SSG and NC fought tightly with 8 wins and 8 losses.
In the semi-PO, the balance is broken.
The biggest variable in this semi-PO is the timing of the appearance of Eric Peddy (NC), the best pitcher in the 2023 KBO League.
Fedi, who swept three categories including multiple wins (20 wins), ERA (2.00), and strikeouts (209), was hit on the right arm by Ko Jong-wook's batted ball in the KIA game on the 16th.
NC coach Kang In-kwon said, “Peddy is recovering little by little,” and “After training on the 20th and watching his condition, we will decide when to take the mound.”
Peddie also pitched well against SSG, with 2 wins in 2 games and an average ERA of 1.38.
If Eric Peddy starts the first game in good health, NC can use the 'Peddy card' one more time if the semi-PO continues until the 5th game.
If Song Myung-ki, who pitched well in the regular season against SSG with an ERA of 2.38 in 4 games (2 starting games), plays well in the semi-PO, NC's momentum will increase further.
SSG's native ace Gwang-Hyun Kim pitched well against NC this year with 3 games, 1 win, 1 loss, and an average ERA of 3.31.
Gwang-Hyun Kim completed his warm-up for the fall stage with 3 hits and no runs in 6 innings in the game against Doosan on the 17th, which confirmed 3rd place in the regular season.
Kirk McCarty has difficulty pitching as a semi-PO due to back pain, and Roenis Elias has struggled with an ERA of 7.53 in three games against NC, making Gwang-Hyun Kim's role more important.
Choi Jeong, the core of the SSG batting lineup who played with a batting average of 0.341, 6 home runs, and 9 RBIs in the NC game, is gradually recovering from his thigh pain.
SSG coach Kim Won-hyung announced, “Of course, I will put Choi Jeong in the semi-PO entry.”
Choi Ji-hoon was also strong in the NC game with a batting average of 0.333.
In NC, Jason Martin (batting average 0.313, 1 home run, 9 RBI), Park Geon-woo (batting average 0.294, 2 home runs, 13 RBI), and Park Min-woo (batting average 0.308) attacked SSG pitchers well.
Son Ah-seop, who ranked first in batting average (0.339), struggled against SSG with 9 hits in 57 at-bats (batting average 0.158), but expressed his motivation, saying, “A new dopamine comes out in the postseason.”