Two games, two different reasons. In Suwon, Samsung arrives with a thin pitching staff and a worn bullpen, and KT is at home with its own scoring touch. In Seoul, the better starter on the board is in the visiting dugout, and that team is also the one hitting. The two picks do not lean on the same story, so I treat them as separate calls.
KT first. Samsung's pitching has been short on arms, with the bullpen worked hard and a few injuries on top, and its starter Won blew up in his last outing. KT has scored well at home, and So has a personal win target that gives him a reason to go deep. The recent rest KT took had a specific reason behind it, and the teams chasing them are still playing.
Now the Jamsil rivalry game, the last one in the old ballpark. LG is 4th and Doosan 5th, two games apart, so both sides need it and motivation does not split them. What splits them is the mound: Choi Min-seok is 14-4 with a 2.73 ERA, and Doosan deliberately set this slot so he gets five days of rest after a rough start on four days. Im Chan-gyu for LG is 14-7 with a 4.30 ERA, 0-2 in his last three starts and out after three innings last time.
The flow backs it up. Doosan won eight of its last ten and scored six runs a game, including 12-0 and 7-5 at Samsung, while LG scored 3.5 a game and lost six straight before beating NC. LG as the lower-priced side also failed to win in 11 of its last 20.
