Neither side brings a real starter to Gocheok, and that shapes the whole match. Hanwha's Jung Woo-ju is going out for a short test of about three innings, so the league's leakiest staff has to cover most of the game from the bullpen. Kiwoom answers with Kim Sung-jin, a reliever who only moved into a starting role in late July. When both teams need this many arms, I expect runs to come from both dugouts.
Manager Kim Kyung-moon was open about the plan for Jung: a check of what he fixed in the minors, roughly three innings, then a training trip to Japan after the season. After his August call-up, Jung gave up three or more runs in six of his eight first-team games before being sent back down.
Kim Sung-jin's first-team season has all come out of the bullpen, with a 5.75 ERA over 32 games. His minor-league numbers as a starter look good, but this is a different level and a different lineup.
The matchup history backs it up. Kiwoom has the weakest offence in the league over the season, yet last week in Daejeon it scored 7, 9 and 6 against this same Hanwha staff. Those three games totalled 9, 12 and 19 runs. Hanwha has allowed 821 runs this year, the most in the KBO, and its bats just put up 13 and 9 in back-to-back games.
Nobody is holding anything back either. This is Kiwoom's last game of the season, and Hanwha gets three days off before its finale, so both managers can empty the bullpen.
