The probability of advancing to the PO increased from 76% to 84% for NC with a 2-game lead.
The NC Dinos swept their first two games of the semifinals to move to within eight points of a playoff berth.
NC won 4-2 against SSG Landers in the second game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League postseason semifinals at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Wednesday. After winning the first game 4-3, the team took the second game to take a two-game lead. They only need to win one of their remaining three games to advance to the playoffs.
After taking a 3-0 lead against SSG starter Kim Kwang-hyun in the first inning, NC added one more run in the second to make it 4-0. After Han Yoo-seom’s back-to-back home runs cut the deficit to 4-3, NC went back up 7-3 in the eighth inning, starting with Kim Hyung-joon’s solo home run, followed by Son Ah-seop’s RBI double and Park Gun-woo’s RBI single. Closer Lee Yong-chan, who allowed two consecutive runs in this year’s postseason, 바카라사이트 gave up a single to Choo Shin-soo and a walk to Choi Jung in the ninth to put runners on second and third, but he got Guillermo Heredia to ground out to third to preserve the 7-3 win.
This is the 15th time in postseason history that the semifinals have been played in a best-of-five series. In 10 of the previous 14 semifinals, the winner of Game 1 advanced to the playoffs. The probability of making the playoffs is 71.4%. There have been eight times where the winner of Game 1 went on to win Game 2, and six of those times (75.0%) the team that won the first two games advanced to the playoffs. The only reverse sweeps were by Doosan in 2010 and Doosan in 2013.
If we expand the scope to all postseason series played in a best-of-three format, the probability of winning the series is 76.1% (35/46) for the first game winner, which is not much different from the probability of making the playoffs for the first game winner in a best-of-three semifinal. However, the probability of winning the series increases significantly to 84.0% (21/25) for the team that takes the first two games. Only four teams in postseason history have managed to pull off a reverse sweep in a best-of-five series: the aforementioned 2010 and 2013 Doosan, as well as Hyundai in the 1996 playoffs and SK (now SSG) in the 2009 playoffs.
NC has a very favorable two-game lead. Game 3 will be played at their home stadium, NC Park in Changwon, with 20-win ace Eric Peddy, who has been sidelined with an injury, getting the start, but foreign pitcher Tanner Tully. If NC can take Game 3, they will clinch the playoffs with a series sweep. The only other team in the history of the semifinals to complete a sweep with three straight wins was Samsung in 2008.