It’s a battle of pride for foreign hitters in the semi-playoffs between the LG Twins and KT Wiz of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO).
LG, which finished third in the regular season, and KT, which beat the fourth-place team for the first time in history in the wild-card round, will face off for a spot in the playoffs (PO-5 best-of-three) starting on Friday.
The two teams, who battled in the Korean Series last year, will face off in the semifinals this year, with all eyes on the bats of foreign hitters Austin Dean (LG) and Mel Rojas Jr. (KT).
Austin, who signed with LG ahead of the 2023 season, batted .313 with 23 home runs and 95 RBIs with an OPS of 0.893 last year, helping LG win the league title.
This year, he’s been even hotter.
In 140 games this year, Austin batted .319 with 32 home runs, 132 RBI, 12 doubles, 99 runs scored, and an OPS of .957. He also showed his ability to get on base, batting .329 with runners in scoring position.
Austin took home the RBI title this year. He is the first LG foreign player to hit 30 home runs and 100 RBIs in the same season. He also broke the record for most RBIs in a season by an LG player (previously 119).
Austin was especially hot in the month of August, batting .367 with nine home runs and 35 RBIs in 24 games.
Career-wise, Rojas is no slouch either.
Playing for KT from 2017-2020, Rojas hit over .300 in four consecutive seasons and hit over 40 home runs in 2018 and 2020.
Rojas was the brightest star of the 2020 season. In 142 games, Rojas batted .349 with 47 home runs, 135 RBIs, and 116 runs scored, leading the league in home runs, RBIs, 토토사이트 runs scored, and slugging percentage (.680) and ranking second in at-bats and total bases (192). He was also named the regular season Most Valuable Player (MVP) that year.
After a stellar 2020 season, Rojas left the KBO to sign with the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball and returned to KT this year after a four-year absence.
Rojas has been solid this year, batting .329 with 32 home runs, 112 RBIs, and an OPS of .989 in 144 games.
Rojas made his presence felt in the fifth-place game against the SSG Landers on April 1, when he hit a come-from-behind three-run homer off ace Kim Kwang-hyun in the eighth inning of a 1-3 loss.
Both Austin and Rojas are unlikely to bat in the No. 4 spot.
LG will use Moon Bo-kyung and KT will use Kang Baek-ho in the No. 4 spot.
Austin, who batted fourth until the middle of the season, has been batting third since July as manager Yoon Kyung-yeop touted Moon as the next No. 4 to gain experience.
Rojas, who started the season batting third, has been the leadoff hitter since mid-May. After batting second in the final three games of the regular season, Rojas continued to bat second in the batting order for the fifth-place game and the wild-card game.
While not a No. 4 hitter, LG and KT will look to Austin and Rojas to be the go-to guys.
In a shortened series, every big hit counts, so it could come down to whose bat is hotter.
Austin is batting .333 (19-for-57) with 15 RBIs in 15 games against KT this season. He has four doubles and two triples, but hasn’t hit a home run.
Rojas has been strong against LG this year, batting .361 (26-for-61) with five home runs and 20 RBIs in 16 games.