In an unexpected decision, the NC Dinos announced Saturday their homegrown right-hander Shin Min-hyeok will take the mound to start a do-or-die Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason game on the weekend.

Shin will start the deciding Game 5 of the second round against the KT Wiz at 2 p.m. Sunday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul.

Sticking to a predictable script, the Wiz will counter with Wes Benjamin, who will be going on four days’ rest after being outdueled by Shin in Game 2 of this series on Tuesday.

The winner of Sunday’s game — and thus this series — will advance to the Korean Series, where the LG Twins, owner of the best regular season record, await.

Shin, 24, is a surprise choice to start the crucial game over Erick Fedde, the Triple Crown winner in the regular season as the KBO leader in wins, ERA and strikeouts. Fedde had a dominant performance in Game 1 of this series on Monday, when he struck out 12 in six innings. He would have been lined up to start Sunday on five days of rest.

But after the Dinos’ 11-2 loss Friday night here, Dinos manager Kang In-kwon revealed that Fedde wasn’t 100 percent after that Game 1 start and that he would have to consider sending Shin to the mound Sunday.

Fedde did not pitch at all in the Dinos’ previous series against the SSG Landers from Oct. 22 and Oct. 25, after taking a batted ball to his right forearm during his final regular season start on Oct. 16. Then after Fedde made his KBO postseason debut on Monday, Kang said the American right-hander was dealing with some shoulder fatigue. And with Fedde not back in form, Kang will now turn to Shin.

Shin has been excellent so far in his first postseason. In Game 2 against the Wiz on Tuesday, Shin threw 6 1/3 shutout innings while allowing only one hit for his first career postseason win.

This came on the heels of Shin’s 5 2/3 scoreless frames against the Landers on Oct. 22.

Benjamin was the losing pitcher on Tuesday, after giving up three runs on four hits in five innings. One of those four hits was a two-run home run by Park Kun-woo in the first inning.

Benjamin was struck in the back of his left thigh by a batted ball during that game, but told reporters Friday that he was completely healthy.

The Wiz are trying to become just the third team to rally from a 2-0 series deficit to win the second round and reach the Korean Series.

The road team has won every game so far, with the Dinos taking the first two in Suwon and then the Wiz battling back to win the next two in Changwon.

Source: Yonhap News Agency