Despite the disappointment of falling to fifth place, there was a sense of hope in the Doosan Bears dugout that they still have a chance.”We have more important games to play,” said manager Lee Seung-yeop on Sunday at SSG Landers Field in Incheon, the final game of the 2023 Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) regular season.Doosan clinched fifth place with a 2-3 loss at SSG Landers in Jamsil on Saturday. With one game in hand, they will play the wild-card deciding game on the 19th at the home field of the fourth-place team.Fifth-place Doosan must beat the fourth-place team on the 19th and 20th to advance to the semifinals. The moment the fourth-place team wins one game or draws one game, the wild card match will be over.The fourth place in the regular season is still undecided. After 17 games, SSG and NC Dinos will finish third and fourth.For the time being, Doosan pulled out all the stops for the “more important game,” the Wild Card Decider.

Manager Lee Seung-yeop said, “Heo Kyung-min, who was hit in the face by a pitch yesterday (Sunday), will rest today. “Jose Rojas is also not feeling well, so I took him out of the starting lineup. Yang Ji Hyun will start at designated hitter, but we’ll probably switch him around during the game. “Yang Ji has dedicated himself to the team in the regular season this year and is a bit tired. We plan to give him a proper rest.”Choi Seung-yong, who was projected to start on Sunday with a “possible jump to fourth place,” will be in the bullpen today. Instead, veteran left-hander Jang Won-jun will take the mound.Manager Lee Seung-yup said, “Choi Seung-yong will pitch in the middle innings in the wild-card game. He can pitch in the middle innings for today’s inspection.”

The bullpen nucleus, Jung Chul-won and Kim Myung-shin, will also not pitch on Sunday in preparation for the wild-card game.Lee, who was fondly known as the “national hitter” during his playing days, began his coaching career this year as the Doosan manager.”Today is a very important game. After today’s game, I’ll prepare for tomorrow’s game, which is also important.” He spent the day preparing for the 144th and final game of the regular season.The SSG game on Sunday was the first “relatively less important game” Lee faced this season.”Time has flown by so fast,” Lee said, looking back on the past 143 games. “We’ve been fighting for positions all season, so we haven’t given our younger players many opportunities. We didn’t find a way to capitalize on our scoring. As soon as this season is over, we’ll start thinking and preparing for next season.”There is only one day left to look ahead to next year.For Lee, it’s back to war.”Our season is not over yet,” Lee said, “We have a really important game on the 19th. We will prepare well for the wild-card deciding game by making sure that (Game 1 starter) Kwak Bin pitches his innings with all 토토사이트 his might and that the next pitcher is ready as soon as possible.”