Young-hyun Park and Jae-yoon Kim aren’t the only ones in the KT Wiz bullpen.
While Park Young-hyun and Kim Jae-yoon were responsible for the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, Son Dong-hyun (22), who appeared in 64 regular-season games and collected eight wins, 15 holds and one save, came in ahead of them and played a role in organising the crisis.
Son Dong-hyun, who did a lot of hard work as a “bullpen supporting cast member” in the regular season, stood out as a protagonist in his first autumn baseball appearance.
Son entered the game with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth inning of a 2-2 tie in Game 5 of the playoffs against the NC Dinos at Katie Weeds Park in Suwon, South Korea.
Starter Wes Benjamin walked Kwon Hee-dong after throwing just one pitch, and Son Dong-hyun laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on first and second.
With just one hit away from a run, Son pumped his fist in the air as he retired Jason Martin on an infield single and Oh Young-soo on an infield grounder.
Even though KT scored a run in the bottom of the sixth to make it 3-2, it was Son’s turn on the mound in the top of the seventh.
Son gave up a double to Son Ah-seob two batters later, but he got Seo Ho-cheol to fly out for the sixth out of Game 5 of the PO.
In the end, KT came back to win 3-2 to punch their ticket to the Korean Series with a reverse sweep, meaning three straight wins after two losses, and Son Dong-hyun was the winning pitcher in Game 5.
In this PO, Son Dong-hyun pitched all five games without missing a beat.
He pitched a total of seven innings, allowing four hits, no walks, and no runs.
Combined with his Game 4 hold and the win, his final record was 5-1 with a 0.00 ERA in five games.
At the end of the series, Son received 39 of the 71 votes cast by the journalists to be named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series, ahead of Choi Jae-dae (17), William Cuevas, Park Young-hyun (5+), Kim Min-hyuk (3), and Jang Jang-woo (2).
The prize is worth 3 million won.
Son has earned the nickname “Strong Hearted Player” for his performance in the autumn baseball season, which is more physically and mentally demanding than the regular season.
This PO is his first autumn baseball.
In 2019, his rookie year, the team failed to qualify for the postseason, and 2020 was unimpressive.
In 2021, when KT won its first ever unified championship, and last year, he served in the Armed Forces Athletic Corps (Commerce).
After his magical performance in the playoffs that gave the team a ticket to the Korean Series, Son will now head to the sleeping quarters where the LG Twins await. 슬롯게이밍