Who Will Be Stronger, Doosan or Kia?

A playoff game between Doosan and Kia, the first pro baseball game in this year’s fall season, will be held in Chamshil Stadium today at 6 p.m.

Fierce competition between Doosan, who finished third in the regular season standings, and Kia, who finished fourth, is expected. The matchup features two of the game’s best pitchers, Ress and Lios, who shared this year’s pitching title. Let’s check what to watch in this clash between the Seoul team and the national team that will be the most popular game in all of this year’s post season.

Shield vs. Shield—

This is the first game in the 23-year history of the league that two best pitchers have met in a post season game. Ress recorded four wins and one loss against Kia with an earned run average of 1.73, while Lios recorded three wins and no losses against Kia with an earned run average of 1.73. In their best-of-three playoff series, the team who wins the first game has been the winner of the series and advanced to the playoffs every time so far. Therefore, the first game will be fierce from the very beginning. The second game of the series in Gwangju on Saturday will be also interesting to watch because of the competition between Doosan’s Park Myeong-hwan and Kia’s Kim Jin-woo.

Pinch-hit Coaches Hit Homeruns—

Coach Kim Gyeong-moon was selected to coach Doosan to our surprise last winter after Doosan failed to get Sun Dong-ryol. Nonetheless, he raised Doosan, a last-place team in the ranking, to third quickly, and his leadership has been recognized. Kia, on the other hand, replaced Coach Kim Seong-han with Ryu Nam-ho. Ryu, who was considered a pinch-hit coach, successfully put Kia in the post season. Whoever wins between the two pinch-hitters will enjoy the honor of being the best coach of the year.

Players to Watch—

Doosan boasts a consistently strong batting record against Kia, even though its regular season record against Kia was a weak nine wins and 10 losses. Although it recorded three losses against Lios, its major hitters such as Choi Gyeong-hwan (.455), Hong Seong-heun (.375), and Chang Won-jin (.366) showed good records. Doosan also has a one-two pitching punch of Ress and Park Myeong-hwan (average ERA: 2.25). The rest of the team’s batters, though, had poor seasons.

Kia’s Son Ji-hwan was particularly strong against Doosan with six hits in 13 bats, but Lee Jong-beom, Hong Sei-wan, and Park Jae-hong recorded only a combined .100 batting average. Nonetheless, Kia recorded six wins and four losses at Chamshil, led by Lee Jong-beom. Kia is also armed with a solid bullpen, featuring Shin Yong-woon after his recovery from an injury and Lee Gang-chul in middle relief.

Hwan Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com