Both of these games come down to one side needing the result far more, or being far better built for the matchup. KT is closing in on the regular-season title against a Lotte team that is already out of the postseason picture. In A Coruna, a newly promoted home side whose defence got carved up inside on opening night meets a Bilbao group that has played together for years.
In Suwon, KT's magic number for a direct Korean Series spot was down to five before this series started. They took the opener 5-0. Bae Je-sung gets the ball, and he has been KT's steadiest arm over the past month: five September games, 27 1/3 innings, just two earned runs.
KT's pitching staff is also whole again. Closer Park Young-hyun and the other national-team pitchers came back from the Asian Games at the end of September. The late innings now look very different from the stretch when KT was covering for them.
Lotte's recent win run looks better on paper than it was. Most of it came against Hanwha and Kiwoom, the bottom two in the table. Their lineup has scored the second-fewest runs in the league, and it couldn't push a run across in the same park a day earlier.
In the ACB, Coruna scored 101 at Barcelona on opening night, so they can put points up. The problem was the other end: Barcelona made 34 of 46 inside the arc, and Coruna gave the ball away 15 times. Coruna wants to run, but you can't run without getting stops first.
Bilbao arrive with the full roster after Krampelj, Frey and Normantas got through the week, and Ponsarnau is expected to use the same twelve as in round one. Coruna's roster has been almost completely rebuilt since its last ACB season, with only Silins left from that group. The long winning streak it brings in was built in the second division.
