KBO’s career home run king delivers 2 big shots to keep Landers alive in postseason hunt

With his club fighting to sneak into the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason, SSG Landers slugger Choi Jeong, the league's all-time home run leader, came through with a pair of big home runs in a crucial victory Monday. Choi smacked a two-run homer and then a grand slam to power the Landers past the Kiwoom Heroes 7-2 in their final game of the 2024 KBO regular season at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, just west of Seoul. With this victory, their fourth in a row to end the season, the Landers finished at 72-70-2 (wins-losses-ties), tied for the fifth and final postseason spot with the KT Wiz. The Landers and the Wiz will play the fifth-place tiebreaker game, the first in KBO history, on Tuesday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, some 30 kilometers south of Seoul. The winner of that game will advance to the wild card game Wednesday against the Doosan Bears -- the first postseason game of 2024. In their must-win game on this warm Monday night, the Landers failed to score in the first two innings against unproven pitcher Yun Seok-won, who was making his first career start and only his 11th appearance of this season. But Yun was lifted after hitting a batter with one out in the third inning, and Choi got to work. Choi jumped on a middle-middle changeup from the new pitcher, Kim Seon-gi, and sent a moon shot into the seats in left field for his 36th home run of the season. Choi then landed the knockout blow with his 15th career grand slam during the five-run fifth inning. After Park Seong-han's single off reliever Kim Dong-hyeok put the Landers up 3-0, Jeong Jun-jae, with runners at first and second, hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Kim Hye-seong. Kim could have tossed the ball to second base for the inning-ending force out but instead chose to throw to first in an ill-advised attempt to get speedy Jeong. The throw was off target, and the error loaded the bases for Choi. Choi made the most of the opportunity, as he drove a high-fastball from Kim over the right-center field for the slam. "Since this was the last game of the regular season, I just wanted to go out and take home run swings," Choi said with a smile. "I tried to stay relaxed and ended up hitting two homers. This feels great." Though this was a pressure-packed, win-or-go-home game, Choi said he and his teammates didn't feel any nerves. "We didn't even have any pregame meeting. Maybe young guys felt a bit jittery, but most of the veterans took this like just another game," Choi said. "This one didn't feel like such an important game. The only thing we were worried about was that maybe the Heroes were due to beat us, because we had been so good against them all year. Other than that, we mostly felt comfortable." Choi admitted he might be a little more nervous Tuesday for the tiebreaker game because "we will really have to go all-in." "We have to go out and win. Nothing else matters," Choi added. "We will do our best to make sure we get to play more games here in Incheon." Thanks to Choi's grand slam, the Landers built comfortable enough of a lead that Choo Shin-soo, the retiring veteran battling shoulder pains, was able to come in as a pinch hitter in the eighth inning. Choi said he'd told Choo before the game that he should try to get one final at-bat in this game. When Choo said he didn't want to do it in a tight game, Choi told his teammate, "Then we're going to score a bunch of runs for you." "I am glad I played a small part of this," Choi said. "It was an emotional moment to see him take that last at-bat." Choi grabbed the sole possession of second place in the grand slam leaderboard, now three back of former third baseman Lee Bum-ho, now manager of the Kia Tigers. Choi finished the 2024 season with 37 home runs, the third-highest total of his illustrious career and his most since hitting a career-high 46 in 2017. This is his sixth 30-homer campaign. Choi, 37, climbed to the top of the career home run rankings with his 468th homer on April 24th and is now five away from becoming the charter member of the 500-homer club. Source: Yonh ap News Agency