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In the second game of the professional baseball semi-playoffs, the KIA Tigers leveraged a powerful offensive burst of five runs in the first inning alone to defeat the LG Twins, securing their second consecutive win and leaving them just one victory away from advancing to the playoffs.

Reporter Jeon Yeongmin has the story.

[Reporter]

The KIA offense caught fire right from the opening frame.

Following a hit by number two hitter Park Jae-hyun and a walk by Kim Do-young, five consecutive batters from cleanup hitter Castro to number eight hitter Ha Joo-suk pounded out hits. This tied the semi-playoff records for the most hits and consecutive reaching bases in a single inning, propelling KIA to a massive five-run lead.

Backed by this explosive run support from the first inning, KIA starting pitcher Oller shut down the LG lineup through six innings, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out eight.

Jeon Sang-hyun took the mound in the eighth inning with two outs and runners on first and second as KIA led 6-3. He struck out Lee Jae-won to put out the fire and then pitched a clean, three-up, three-down ninth inning to pick up his second consecutive save in as many days.

Winning 6-3, KIA claimed its second straight victory and now stands just one win away from moving on to the playoffs.

[Lee Bum-ho / KIA Manager: Scoring heavily early on in the batting department allowed us to win today's game. We will do our absolute best in the third game to secure another victory.]

LG rolled the dice by benching the slumping Hong Chang-ki in favor of Lee Jae-won while placing Park Hae-min and Song Chan-eui at the top of the batting order. However, they failed to wake up their silent bats and are now backed into a corner.

KIA has named Shirakawa as its starting pitcher for Game 3, while LG, facing elimination, will turn to Carrasco.

(Video by Yang Doo-won | Video Editing by Park Jung-sam)