(LEAD) Twins beat Seoul rivals Bears to grab KBO wild card, reach next postseason round

SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- Austin Dean smoked a two-run home run, and starter Carlos Carrasco tossed six innings of one-run ball as the LG Twins edged out the Doosan Bears 4-1 to grab the wild card in the South Korean baseball postseason Wednesday.

As the fourth seed in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular season, the Twins only needed a tie or a win to advance to the next round. The Bears, as the fifth seed, had to win two straight games to move on, and they wasted a strong outing by starter Gwak Been, who struck out 10 over six innings.

Gwak's only blemish was Dean's dinger in the bottom of the first inning at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. The Bears eked out one run after loading the bases in the top of the seventh but stranded two runners in the eighth.

The Twins tagged on two runs in the bottom of the eighth to secure the win and set up a date with the third-seed Kia Tigers in the next postseason series, a best-of-five affair, starting Saturday in the southwestern city of Gwangju.

Carrasco scattered four hits and struck out three in his KBO postseason debut.

Dean set the tone early for the Twins by hammering a two-run home run in the bottom of the first.

With the count at 2-2, Dean drilled a hanging curveball from starter Gwak Been that caught the upper part of the zone and sent it 119 meters into the seats in left. The ball left Dean's bat at 169.2 kph, with a launch angle of 35.3 degrees.

The Bears failed to capitalize after having a runner on in each of the first two innings. Park Chan-ho was stranded at third in the opening frame when cleanup Yang Eui-ji struck out against starter Carlos Carrasco. In the second, Kim Min-suk legged out an infield single but was doubled off after Jung Soo-bin lined out to third baseman Moon Bo-gyeong.

It was the kind of gaffe that the Bears could ill afford to make -- the ball was hit right at Moon and Kim had no reason to venture out that far toward second base -- especially on a night when they got almost nothing going offensively.

Gwak pitched himself into and out of trouble in the second.

A double, a walk and an error loaded the bases with nobody out and the top of the Twins order due up. Gwak then dug deep to strike out Hong Chang-ki, Park Hae-min and Dean in succession -- all of them with his signature four-seam fastball.

Gwak got into a groove afterward, allowing just two baserunners over the next four innings. But his teammates failed to respond in kind at the plate, as they managed only two singles off Carrasco through the first six frames.

The Bears finally had something brewing in the seventh, with Luis Severino leading off with a single and Yang Eui-ji following up with a double -- with the latter hit chasing Carrasco from the game.

Reliever Jon Kennedy struck out Kim Min-suk but then hit Kang Seung-ho to load the bases.

Yang Suk-hwan came on as a pinch hitter and sent a fly to deep center field for what appeared to be a lead-flipping hit. But center fielder Park Hae-min ran it down and caught the ball on the warning track, a game-saving play that limited the damage to a run, as Severino tagged up from third to make it a 2-1 game.

A double steal moved the runners to second and third for another pinch hitter, Park Ji-hoon, but Kennedy got him to ground out to second to win an eight-pitch battle.

The Bears frittered away another chance in the top of the eighth. With one out and runners at first and second, both Severino and Ryu Seung-min struck out looking against reliever Lee Woo-chan.

The Twins finally pulled ahead with two add-on runs in the bottom of the inning. A single, a sacrifice bunt and another single had the runners at the corners for Shin Min-jae, who put a bunt down the third base line to bring home a run and beat out the throw to first to keep the rally going.

Then with Park Hae-min at the plate, a wild pitch scored the Twins' fourth run.

After Carrasco, the Twins used four pitchers out of their battered bullpen to secure the win.