Wednesday, April 30, 2008

4/29 Roundup and News


This is from last night in Busan. The local populace has certainly embraced this squad.

I found this at the Korea Times. The KBO announced a 66 player olympic roster! Talk about indecisive. Complete with 37 pitchers, 5 catchers and twelve position players. 12 position players. So, 8 guys in the field, 9 man bench. There is going to be exactly one more backup position player than there are backup catchers. I guess, the term "balanced roster" doesn't translate.

SK 8, Hanwha 4

If it weren't for a three-run homerun by Hanwha warm body, Lee Do-hyeon, off of SK warm body, Ka Duk-yeom, the final would have been 8-1. That makes the game sound close.

SK essentially beat Hanwha in every facet of the ballgame last night. The Wyverns are a lot of fun right now. They haven't lost a ballgame in ten days! Park Jae-sang(.282/.406/.410) and Park Jae-hong(.349/.404/.698) led the charge for SK last night. Jae-sang went 3-4 with two runs, two RBI and two SB's. Jae-hong was 3-4 with a double, one RBI and two runs scored.

SK starter, Chae Byeong-yong(1.98 ERA, 4-0, 1.16 WHIP) tossed 8 strong innings(99 pitches, 67 strikes), allowing 1 run on 5 hits and striking out 4.

Samsung 6, Woori 5

Samsung trailed 5-1 in the 6th inning. They tacked on one run to make it 5-2. I was convinced we had seen the fake rally and Samsung would go quietly into the night. I was also convinced that this was the same lethargic bunch that limped into the playoffs last year and would never crush my hopes completely. I'd rather be hopeful(like SK fans are) or hopeless(like LG fans are). I hate being stuck in between. Then, Samsung mounted a 7th inning rally and Oh Seung-hwan(8 saves) nailed the game down for his 8th save. I'm suddenly hopeful again, but I still don't trust these guys.

At the plate for Samsung, Park Han-yi(.353/.452/.459, 18 runs scored) and Park Seok-min(.298/.412/.405) both went 3-4. Yang Jun-hyeok(.196/.282/.293) came off the bench for a big pinch hit, 2-RBI single in the 7th inning to give Samsung a 6-5 lead, but he did get caught in an awkward run down that ended with him essenitally surrendering.

Woori's Hwang Jae-gyun(.315/.351/.382) went 4-4 with two doubles and two RBI and Song Ji-man(.299/.333/.429) went 2-4 with a double and 3 RBI.

Lotte 8, LG 0

Another one of those "beat you in every facet" games. Lotte simply did everything better than LG. This game didn't feel quite as lopsided as the score would have you believe, until the 7th inning, Lotte only led 3-0. Jamie Brown(6.23 ERA, 1-3, 1.71 WHIP) appeared to run out of gas and the opportunistic Giants jumped all over him. When the dust settled, Brown had allowed 5 runs over 6 innings(99 pitches, 61 srtikes) on 8 hits and one walk. Brown added 5 punchouts.

On the mound for Lotte was Jang Won-jun(4.98 ERA, 3-2, 1.62 WHIP). Jang tossed 7 2/3 scoreless innings(112 pitches, 66 strikes). He allowed only 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out 6.

At the plate for Lotte, Lee Dae-ho(.357/.443/.571), 4HR, 26RBI, 18 R) came up big. He went 3-4 with a homer, 3 RBI and one run scored. Every Lotte starter except Park Hyeon-sung had a hit.

KIA 6, Doosan 2

KIA was all over Doosan from the beginning. This was a "Death by one thousand cuts" game. KIA could break through with a huge inning, but they pieced together a few one and two run innings. Before Doosan knew it they were trailing 6-0. If it weren't for a pair of fake rallies in the 7th and 8th inning, Doosan would have been shutout. For some reason it appeared Doosan was lacking the intensity that they brought to last week's series with SK. It was a fairly lethargic effort from the Bears.

KIA's Lee Hyeon-gon(.238/.284/2.87) went 2-4 with a homer, two RBI and two runs scored. Starting pitcher, Seo Jae-weong(3.47 ERA, 1-2, 1.54) tossed 6 1/3 strong innings(107 pitches, 64 strikes) allowing one run on 7 hits and 3 walks. Seo also struck out 4.

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