FIRST KS TO BE HELD AT CHANGWON NC PARK, NC GOES WINLESS AT HOME

For the third and fourth games of the Korean Baseball Playoffs (PO), Changwon NC Park was packed with 17,400 fans for the second consecutive day. With two wins against the enemy, the NC Dinos had a sweet dream of qualifying for the Korean Series in front of their home fans.

However, after a strong run from the Wild Card Decision Game to the semi-playoffs and the first two games of the PO, NC was swept by kt wiz on the 2nd and 3rd.In the 3rd game of the 2nd day, they lost 0-3 without a single player reaching second base throughout the game, and in the 4th game of the 3rd day, they were held hitless until the 2nd inning of the 6th inning and lost 2-11.NC, who had won the first two games of the best-of-5 PO, lost two games and was in danger of a ‘reverse sweep’.

The cold batting lineup caused NC head coach Kang In-hwa to worry.NC scored 41 points in five games from the Wild Card Decider to Game 1 of the PO. Their lowest score in five games was four points in the first round of the semifinals against SSG Landers .After scoring three runs in Game 2 of the POs, NC went scoreless in Game 3 and was outscored 0-11 in Game 4, only scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning when the game was effectively decided.

In Games 슬롯 3 and 4, NC totaled 10 hits. They didn’t hit a single home run. The NC batting lineup was even worse as KT pounded out 21 hits, including five home runs, over the two days. The scoreless chain that started in the 4th inning of Game 2 continued for 22 innings until the 7th inning of Game 4 of the PO. It wasn’t until the 8th inning of the 4th game that NC scored, when KT played a little loose.

KT continued its streak of 22 consecutive scoreless innings by shutting out the NC bats, setting a new record for the most consecutive scoreless innings in a single PO and a new record for the most consecutive scoreless innings in a single PO.

The 22-inning streak equaled the Doosan Bears’ record of 22 consecutive innings from Game 2 of the 2005 PO to Game 2 of the 2007 PO, and broke the record of 20 consecutive scoreless innings in a single PO set by the LG Twins in 1993 against the Samsung Lions from Games 2 to 5.

In POs 3 and 4, home fans at Changwon NC Park saw NC runners cross the plate only once (in the eighth inning of Game 4) during a total of 18 offensive at-bats. This is a monumental year for NC.

The first postseason game was played at the home NC Park, which opened in 2019, followed by the first semifinal and then the first PO.NC won its first overall title in 2020, but the Korean Series was held at the Gocheok Sky Dome, a “neutral site” in the wake of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

This fall, NC defeated Dusan at home on October 19 to become the winner of the wild-card deciding game. It was also at Changwon NC Park that they defeated SSG Landers in Game 3 of the Semi-PoL on October 25 to secure a spot in the PO. However, the PO did not end at home.NC will need to win Game 5 in Suwon on Friday to secure their first Korean Series since the opening of Changwon NC Park.