“I’ll use every ounce of energy I have, even if it means going to the emergency room.”

No one is more eager for the Korean Series than NC Dinos captain Son Ah-seop, 35, who has played 74 regular-season games and zero Korean Series games. He has never played in the Korean Series.

Coincidentally, he joins former Lotte players Kang Min-ho (Samsung, 2233 games) and Lee Dae-ho (retired, 1971 games) as the “top three” players with the most games without a Korean Series appearance.

“I don’t think there’s anyone more eager than me,” Son said ahead of Game 5 of the playoffs, “but it’s hard. We want to win today to have a chance, but if the heavens help us, we’ll win, and if they don’t, we’ll lose. We just have to do our best and put all our energy into today,” he said, emphasizing that he was determined to squeeze every last bit of energy out of his body.

Their stamina was already low. The team had been on the road since the wild-card game. The long distances traveled only added to the exhaustion. “I think playing one game in the postseason is more exhausting than playing 18 innings in two doubleheaders in the regular season,” said Son, “After the third game, I was trying to eat beef, 온라인카지노 but it took no effort to hold my chopsticks.” He explained how big the exhaustion was.

But Son couldn’t stop there.

He couldn’t give up on the Korean Series, a stage he hadn’t yet trodden. The momentum from his first individual batting title this year (batting .339) carried over into the postseason. In four playoff games, he batted 3-for-5 with six RBIs in 17 at-bats. Son took his time at the plate, desperately hoping that Game 5 would not be his last.

After striking out in the top of the first inning, Son reached base in both scoring opportunities. In the top of the third inning, Kim Hyung-joon and Kim Joo-won both reached on shortstop errors to put runners on first and second, and Son lined a technical hit to left. The throw was short and didn’t bring home the runner from second, but with the bases loaded, Seo Ho-cheol hit a sacrifice fly to center field to take the lead.

In the fifth inning, they created their own run.

Leadoff hitter Kim Hyung-joon doubled and Kim Joo-won singled to right field to put runners on first and third. The KT infield was playing forward defense. They took advantage of the gap and hit a single to left field to take a 2-0 lead.

However, the lead didn’t last long. In the bottom of the fifth inning, KT gave up a two-run double to Kim Min-hyuk to tie the game at 2-2, and in the top of the sixth inning, they walked Park Byung-ho with the bases loaded, but gave up one more run to fall behind 2-3.

In the top of the seventh inning, Son As-seob, batting third with the bases loaded, completed his three-hit performance with a double to left field. Despite not being able to get a full count in left-center, Son sprinted to second base. However, he was unable to score the tying run as Seo Ho-cheol flied out to right field.

After that, Son was no longer in the batter’s box. The NC bats were exhausted. Son had given it his all, but his teammates had also given it their all, and they were discharged. The team lost 2-3, dropping their third straight game after two straight playoff wins. In the end, Son’s dreams were not realized as the team failed to reach the Korean Series again this year.