“Everyone except Kim Kwang-hyun and McCarty on standby”…McCarty will be ready for the bullpen from Game 2
“Kim Kwang-hyun, Kirk McCarty, and everyone else will be there.”
SSG will host the NC Dinos for a playoff berth in the 2023 KBO Postseason Semifinals on April 22 at SSG Landers Field in Incheon. It will be a best-of-five, best-of-three series.
Before the game, manager Kim Won-hyung revealed the batting order of Oh Tae-gon (first base), Park Sung-hwan (shortstop), Choi Jung (third base), Guillermo Heredia (left fielder), Han Yu-seom (designated hitter), Ha Jae-hoon (right fielder), Choi Ji-hoon (center fielder), Kim Sung-hyun (second baseman), and Kim Min-sik (catcher).
Choi “The Fixer” Jung is back after not completing the regular season due to a left hamstring strain. “He’ll do something for us,” Kim Won-hyung said.
SSG added Choi and foreign pitcher Kirk McCarty to its roster for the semi-playoff series.
McCarty made his first start against the Literary Lotte on March 23 and lasted just two innings. He felt pain in his right obliques while fielding and was removed to protect the player, but a medical examination on the 25th revealed that he needed two weeks of rest due to an internal oblique injury.
Recovery was slow and I didn’t return until the end of the regular season. McCarty, who was a nine-win regular season starter this year, was expected to miss the postseason, but returned for the first game of the fall.
He made a live pitch on Sept. 20. He threw 15 pitches to check his conditioning. However, it was difficult for them to pitch today. Kim said, “Kim Kwang-hyun and McCarty will not pitch today. Everyone else will be on standby. We have to keep in mind the possibility of an extra 15 innings,” Kim said.
McCarty will not start the second game of the semi-playoff series, but will be in the bullpen.
SSG faced NC 16 times during the regular season this year, splitting the series 8-8. It’s going to be a hard-fought battle for a playoff spot.
They will play the first game on the 22nd, the second game on the 23rd, and the 24th is a travel day. From the 25th, they will play the third and fourth games at NC’s home stadium, Changwon NC Park, and if they go to the fifth game, they will take a day off on the 27th and return to Incheon, home of SSG, which finished third in the regular season, on the 28th for the final game.
NC, which finished fourth in the regular season, won the wild-card deciding game against the Doosan Bears 14-9. Seo Ho-cheol went 3-for-6 with a grand slam, while Kim Hyung-jun went 2-for-4 with a multi-homer game.
