The 2018 Korean Series is the championship series of the 2018 KBO League season. The Doosan Bears, as the regular season champions, automatically advanced to the Korean Series, where they faced the SK Wyverns. The series ran from November 4 to November 12.
The Bears faced the SK Wyverns, who last won the Korean Series in 2010.[3] The Wyverns finished the regular season with the second-best record in the league, 14+1⁄2 games behind Doosan.[4] They advanced to the playoff round.[2] The Wyverns defeated the Nexen Heroes in the KBO League playoffs to reach the Korean Series.[5]
Seth Frankoff started Game 2 for Doosan.[8] He had ten strikeouts in 6+2⁄3 innings, earning the win. Moon Seung-won started for the Wyverns. Doosan's Choi Joo-hwan hit a two-run home run and recorded a third RBI in the eighth inning. Kim Kang-min drove in all three runs for the Wyverns.[7]
Game 3
Jamie Romak hit two home runs for the Wyverns in Game 3.[9]
The Wyverns scored first when Kim Kang-min hit an RBI single to score Kim Sung-hyun in the third inning. In the eighth inning, Jung Soo-bin hit a two-run home run to give Doosan the lead, which they hung on to win and tie the series at two all.[10]
Doosan scored their only run in Game 5 with a solo home run by Jung Jin-ho in the third inning. In the seventh inning, Kim Sung-hyun tied the game at 1-1 with an RBI double, and Kim Kang-min hit an RBI sacrifice fly to give the Wyverns a 2-1 lead. The next inning, Park Jung-kwon had an RBI single and Kim Sung-hyun drew a walk with the bases-loaded to expand the lead to 4-1.[11]
Lee Yong-chan, Doosan's starting pitcher, walked the first three Wyverns batters to load the bases. The Wyverns scored one run in the first inning with an RBI groundout by Jamie Romak. Kang Seung-ho hit a two-run home run for the Wyverns in the fourth inning to give them a 3-0 lead. Wyverns' starting pitcher Merrill Kelly did not allow a hit for the first 5+1⁄3 innings, but Doosan scored three runs in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Choi Joo-hwan and a two RBI single by Yang Eui-ji. Yang added a third RBI with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to give Doosan a 4-3 lead. In the top of the ninth inning, Choi Jeong hit a game-tying home run for the Wyverns, and the game went into extra innings. Han Dong-min hit a home run for the Wyverns in the top of the thirteenth inning, and Kim Kwang-hyun, the Wyverns' ace starting pitcher, earned the save by pitching a scoreless inning in the bottom of the thirteenth to win the title for the Wyverns. The final out was made by strike out, which gave Park Kun Woo golden sombrero.[4] Han won the Korean Series Most Valuable Player Award.[12]