The last Jamsil rivalry game of the regular season comes down to the mound, and I think Doosan has the better arm going. Choi Min-seok has been one of the league's best starters all year and has handled LG well, while Lim Chan-gyu hasn't won since mid-September. Add an LG lineup that has gone quiet over the last ten games, and I'm with Doosan here.
Choi is 14-4 with a 2.73 ERA, and against LG this season he's 3-0 with a 2.67 ERA. Lim is 14-7 with a 4.30 ERA and went 0-2 over his next three starts after his win on 13 September. His last one lasted three innings with four runs allowed at SSG.
Choi's last outing looked bad too, three innings and four runs against NC, but there was a clear reason. He was pitching four days after throwing 96 pitches for Korea at the Asian Games, and Doosan capped him at 60. This time he's on five days' rest, and Doosan has no reason to hold him back: his next turn is the wild-card game on 15 October.
LG just snapped an eight-game losing streak, but the slide was real. They averaged 3.5 runs over their last ten, lost a string of one-run games, and blew a 3-0 lead in the ninth at SSG. Doosan put up 12 and 7 runs in Daegu and beat Lotte on the road just before this one.
Both teams have something on the line. A win locks up fourth for LG, and Doosan can only catch them by winning this game. Nobody is resting anyone, so it comes down to who pitches better and who hits, and both of those point to Doosan.
