Wiz manager benches slumping slugger in do-or-die Korean Series game

KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-chul benched his slumping slugger Ahn Hyun-min at the start of his team's first elimination game of the Korean Series on Sunday. The Wiz are trailing the Samsung Lions 3-1 in the best-of-seven championship round, and a loss in Game 5, set for Sunday afternoon at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu, will end the Wiz's season. The Wiz won the series opener Tuesday but have since lost three straight games. Ahn, the 2025 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) Rookie of the Year, homered in that first game, an 8-7 Wiz victory, but has since gone 1-for-12 with four strikeouts. Ahn, normally a designated hitter, was forced to play in right field in Saturday's Game 4, with the regular right fielder Choi Won-jun dealing with a hand injury. Ahn misjudged the flight of the flyball hit by Kim Do-hwan with the bases loaded, and the misplay, which was not officially scored as an error, allowed all three runners to score as part of the Lions' six-run inning. Jang Jin-hyuk, who homered in Saturday's game, will start in right field and bat second Sunday. "Ahn Hyun-