Tigers Rout Twins 13-1 to Sweep Series and Close Jamsil Stadium Era

SEOUL — The Kia Tigers completed a three-game sweep of the defending champion LG Twins with a 13-1 rout in Game 3 of their best-of-five Korea Baseball Organization first-round postseason series at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on Tuesday, a result that also marked the final official game at the 44-year-old venue.Kim Do-yeong hit a grand slam to cap a seven-run second inning for the Tigers, who advanced to face the Samsung Lions in the next best-of-five series starting Sunday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park. The Tigers outhit the Twins 16-8 and outscored them 24-5 across the series, according to Yonhap reporting.Keisho Shirakawa struck out nine over five innings to earn the win, becoming the first Japanese pitcher to win a KBO postseason game. The Tigers' starter allowed one run on three hits before departing in the sixth. Kim, who finished the series with three home runs and eight RBIs, was voted series MVP with 84 of 97 votes. His grand slam traveled 145 meters, tying the longest postseason home run since recordkeeping began in 2000, and at 23 years and 18 days old he became the youngest player to hit a postseason grand slam in KBO history.Na Sung-bum hit two solo home runs and Han Jun-su added another for the Tigers, who became just the fourth team to have every starting lineup member record at least one hit and score at least one run in a postseason game.For the Twins, the loss ended their bid for a second straight Korean Series title and closed the book on Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which opened in 1982 and will be demolished after this season to make room for a new dome. The Twins and the Doosan Bears shared the venue as co-tenants, and the Twins clinched the 2023 Korean Series there."Throughout the series, we were badly outperformed by the Tigers at the plate, and we just made things difficult on ourselves," Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said. "Fans had high expectations for us, and we did not live up to them. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and see where things went wrong this year."The Twins' exit means the KBO has not had a repeat champion since the 2015-2016 Doosan Bears. The Tigers, the 2024 champions, will next face the Lions in a rematch of the 2024 Korean Series.