Friday, September 19, 2008

9/17 & 9/18 Roundup and News

I'm doing these together, just to get all caught up. Sorry this has taken so long.

This is a little late, but LG phone model, Jessica Gomez, threw out the first pitch at a Twins(LG) game a few days ago. Cameras were on hand. Hat tip to KoreaBeat.

The champagne was flowing in Busan last night! The Lotte Giants clinched their first playoff birth since 2000. I'm thrilled for Jerry Royster. He has completely changed the apathetic attitude that was present in Lotte's clubhouse for the past few seasons.

Lee Seung-yeop hit 3 homers in a game. He may be very clean, but he is not washed up. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

The Joongang Daily offers up an interesting opinion piece on the careers of Choi Hee-seop and Choo Shin-soo. This is one of the best articles Yoo Jae-ho has produced this year.

First the scores from 9/17...

SK 5, Doosan 2
W - Lee Seung-ho (3-1), L - Kim Sang-hyeon (5-1), S - Esteban Yan (4)

If these two make up games tell us anything, it's that the postseason should be a lot of fun this year. For the last two nights, Doosan and SK gave each other everything they had. SK held a slim one run lead heading into the bottom of the 8th inning. Doosan slugger, Kim Hyeon-su connected for a 2-run homer to give the Doosan Bears a 2-1 advantage. Doosan called on Kim Sang-hyeon to shut the door, but SK kicked it wide open in the top of the 9th. The Wyverns struck for a 4-run rally. With one out and the sacks packed with Wyverns, SK's Na Ju-hwan delivered a base hit to tie the game at 2. Then, Jeong Geun-woo delivered an old fashioned Baltimore chop base hit to the left side to plate the go-ahead run and keep the bases loaded. Then, Choi Jeong hit a sloooooooow dribbler down the 3rd base line that managed to stay fair and Doosan third baseman, Kim Dong-ju, fumbled to make the score 4-2 and keep the bases loaded. The final run was scored on a DEEP SAC fly from Lee Jae-won. Esteban Yan tossed a 1-2-3 9th to record the save.

KIA 4, The Heroes 2
W- Kwak Jeong-cheol (1-0), L - Kim Su-kyeong (3-6), S - Han Ki-ju (25)

I can honestly say I didn't watch this game, but I'm assuming golf clubs were involved at some point. KIA won this game thanks to a sterling effort from starting pitcher, Kwak Jeong-cheol. Kwak tossed 7 shutout innings(114 pitches, 64 strikes) allowing 6 hits and 3 walks with 3 K's. In the top of the 7th The Heroes fell to pieces. A base hit, followed by a walk followed by a pick off throw bouncing around foul territory allowed the first KIA run to score. Then The Heroes shortstop screwed up on the exchange from glove to hand and allowed the 2nd run to scamper home. A legit base hit from KIA's Kim Sang-hoon scored the 3rd run and a wild pitch scored the 4th. I think KIA hit one ball hard in the entire inning. Just baseball at its laziest. The Heroes need a break and it's coming soon.

Hanhwa 7, Lotte 4
W - Kim Hyeok-min (4-4), L - Jang Won-joon (12-9), S - Brad Thomas (29)

Lotte starter Jang Won-joon was pitching well enough, until the wheels fell off during a 5-run 6th inning rally. The inning was capped by a grand slam from Hanhwa centerfielder and foreign sensation, Doug Clark. Both Lee Dae-ho and Son Kwong-min hit solo homers for the Giants, but they never really had much going in terms of offense and Hanhwa was able to piece together just enough pitching to earn the W.

And the score from 9/18...

SK 8, LG 4
W - Kim Won-hyeong (11-5), L - Woo Gyu-min (2-6)

After 2 nights of emotional September baseball, I honestly suspected the Wyverns would get tripped up by the Twins. It's been a common theme in the recent years for teams to struggle after emotional wins. I couldn't have been more wrong about SK. They did fall behind, but they got into that lousy, lousy LG bullpen and battered them around for a few innings. As soon as Chris Oxspring left the game, LG was sunk. SK leadoff man, Park Jae-sang finished the night 4-6 with a double and 3 RBI. The SK catcher, Jeong Sang-ho finished the night 4-5 with 1 RBI and 2 runs scored.

Samsung 14, KIA 2
W - Ahn Ji-man (5-1), L - Yang Hyeon-jong(0-5)

Wow. I didn't see this coming from the local ball club. After giving up 2 first inning runs, I was convinced this would be a long night. I was right. It was a long night...for KIA!!!! Muahahahahahahaha! The Lions scored 5 in the 1st, 5 in the 3rd, 3 in the 4th and an FU run in the 6th. Lions Outfielder, Kang Bong-gyu went 2-4 with 2 doubles, a homer, 3 RBI and 2 runs scored. Park Jin-man, the shortstop with the slick glove and dreadful bat, turned a 2-4, 4 RBI performance last night. The only negative for Samsung was that it took 7 pitchers, including Oh Seung-hwan, to make it through a 9 inning game with a 12-run lead.

2 comments:

Eujin said...

Doosan snatched victory from the jaws of defeat this evening in Busan. Yu Jae-ung hit a two run homer in the ninth to tie after Lotte had come back from 3-1 down with 4 runs in the eigth. Then Kim Dong-ju hit a belter in the 10th to win it. Beautiful.

Close run thing though. It looked like they'd lost it. Looking forward to the play-offs.

Eujin said...

So Doosan put the smackdown on the Giants this weekend. A 3-0 sweep to open up a two game lead with two games in hand. Today's game was actually quite close until the seventh. And four home runs over three games if I'm not mistaken. It's almost like the US.

In some ways it's good for Lotte since this way they'll probably get more games at home for their plastic bag on the head-wearing, Rivers of Babylon-singing fans.