KBO Playoffs Round 2, Game 2 Roundup and News

The Korea Times covers last night's 14 inning affair in about 4 paragraphs. Someone needed to get to bed. While Aaron at the EWC gives the game a worthy write up. Which one of these guys gets paid again?


For some reason, this guy got a TON of face time on last night's broadcast. Every time something would happen to the Lions they would cut to a shot of this guy in the orange jacket. At the end of the game, I actually found myself thinking, "Orange must be really happy right now."


"Yes! We'll make it to the hotel before midnight!"


Last night's ballgame set a KBO record for the longest postseason game ever played. My two favorite baseball teams have set records for longest games played. In 2005, my beloved Chicago White Sox set the MLB record for the longest World Series game(5 hours and 41 minutes) and tied the record for the longest World Series game by innings played(14). Now the Samsung Lions have played in a 14 inning playoff game. What does this mean? I am very, very tired.

On to the roundup...

Samsung 7, Doosan 4 (14)
W - Oh Seung-hwan, L - Keum Min-cheol

This game took just over 5 hours to complete. I starting watching at my girlfriend's apartment, left to catch the subway around 9:45 and made it home in time to watch the last 3 innings. Like I had earlier this season, I completely wrote off the Lions. No way can they keep Doosan off the scoreboard. The bullpen is too tired and Doosan's lineup is too talented. No way. The Lions proved me wrong again.

As a "Bitter White Sox fan," I have years of resentment built up in my system. Although the events of '05 washed some of that away, when times get tough, I will still turn off my TV in disgust. Between the White Sox play during the last two games of the regular season and this Lions team, I'm slowly starting to change my behaviour as a fan.

The Lions and Bears traded 0's for a few innings, until Doosan broke through against John Ennis in the 3rd. If John Ennis makes it out of the 3rd inning in a game, do you think he'll be surprised? Or do you think he'll even notice because he knows the hook is coming soon? Doosan scored its first two runs thanks to a triple from Oh Jae-won with runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out. The next batter, Ko Yeong-min, drove in Oh with an RBI ground out to short. Park Jin-man actually remembered to throw the ball this time.

Samsung tallied its first run in the 4th inning on a bases loaded sac fly from Park Jin-man to make the score 3-1. That's where the game stood until Samsung rallied in the 7th. Samsung did threaten in the 6th inning. Throughout the game, they kept cutting to a shot of a crazed Park Seok-min sitting in the dugout, clutching a bat and rocking back and forth like a psycho. With two outs and the bases loaded, the injured slugger came in to pinch hit. I don't think Sun Dong-yeol was consulted in this decision. On TV, we saw Park rise, grab a helmet and walk onto the field. Now, the last I heard, Park had a hairline fracture in his chest. It has to hurt to breathe, let alone swing a bat. Park worked the count to 2-2....and grounded out to second to end the threat. Not exactly Kirk Gibson in the '88 World Series.

In the 7th, Samsung was finally able to sustain a rally. Samsung's second run came on an RBI single from the ageless wonder, Yang Joon-hyeok. Then, with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 out, Doosan catcher, Hong Seong-heun, allowed a passed ball and Samsung was able to tie the game at 3 thanks to Kim Jae-geol's mad dash from 3rd. Choi Hyeong-woo drilled a Kim Myeong-jae pitch into right to score Yang and give Samsung a 4-3 advantage.

Doosan tied the game in the bottom of the 7th on an RBI single from Chae Sang-byeong. The score would remain tied for another 6 innings. In the top of the 14th, Samsung mounted a two out rally. First, Chae Tae-in singled. Then, Kim Cheong-hee hit a seeing eye single up the middle to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Kang Bong-gyu came in to run for Chae. Lee Yong-chan came in to pitch for Doosan. Lee immeadiately surrendered a 2 RBI double to Samsung's Shin Myeong-cheol to give Samsung a 6-4 advantage. Park Han-yi doubled to score Shin and make it a 7-4 ballgame. Oh Seung-hwan stayed in for his 2nd inning(I believe, he was the only available reliever Samsung had left) and retired Doosan in order to end the game and even the series.

The series continues on Sunday at 2pm in Colorful Daegu's Rat Box stadium. Samsung's Yoon Seong-hwan gets the starting nod. Yoon was last seen going 4 innings in game 3 of the series against Lotte. He surrendered 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks with 1 K. Doosan will send Lee Hye-cheon to the mound. Lee finished the 2008 regular season with a 7-5 record, a 4.69 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. He struck out 83 batters in 109 1/3 innings.