KBO Playoffs Round 2, Game 4 Roundup and News

Ugh. I have a slight hangover and I just got yelled at for some reason by one of my coworkers. Every morning at 8:35 I have to call a middle school and have "conversations" with 3 middle school students for about 10 minutes. Usually, I make the calls from an empty teacher's lounge. Today the lounge was full and painfully noisy. I surrendered immediately. I made the call from the office. The same office that I inhabit with the other subject teachers at my school. They have no idea about the level of volume they generate. About 3 seconds into the call they started screaming and laughing. I cleared my throat, "Ahem?" My co-teacher explained the situation and they stopped screaming for a few minutes so I could finish my call.

Then, one of them starting making comments, loudly, in Korean about something I did(I'm assuming it's the throat clearing). My only responses were, "Maybe if you say it faster, I'll understand better," and "I think I can ask you to stop screaming for a few minutes so I can make a phone call." Mind you, this silly phone call is part of my job. I have to do this whether I like it or not. I don't like it to begin with. I like getting yelled at about it even less. The atmosphere in the office right now is fairly tense. I get blamed for everything...and Samsung was absolutely pantsed last night. Ugh. Triple whammy. On a Tuesday. At least the phone call is finished.

Korean cartoonist, Choi Hoon, offers his account of the playoffs so far.

The Korea Times offers another account of last night's events. This is the best article they've written on the playoffs. That really isn't saying much.

The Joongang Daily has another one of their "Inside the KBO" features. I love these because they actually have analysis and they're actually well written. Jee-ho can offer insight and reasoning that I, a confused foreigner, can't get otherwise.

Aaron at the EWC has posted his account of last night. I like the image he used at the top of the article. It helps to describe exactly how thorough last night's thumping was.


This pretty much sums up everything that happened last night in Daegu. Actually, I get the feeling that I'll have to get used to seeing images like this for the next two games. Good times!

Doosan 12, Samsung 6
W - Jeong Jae-hoon, L - Lee Sang-mok
The series is tied 2-2

You know, 12-6 makes this game sound close. Doosan jumped out to a 5-0 first inning lead thanks to Mr. Batting Practice, Lee Sang-mok. I can't believe Lee actually finished the first inning. He allowed 5 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. I think that offer to work for his cousin's sporting goods company is looking better and better for next year.

Doosan scored in every inning except the 7th and 8th. This hit parade ended with 12 runs scored on 21 hits and 5 walks. 8 of the 21 hits were for extra bases and 1 left the ballpark. To their credit, Samsung only used 3 pitchers in this game. This loss would have been tougher to swallow if Samsung had burned through their bullpen. Doosan catcher, Hong Seong-heun and 2nd baseman, Ko Yeong-min both drove in 3 runs. While the top two hitters in the Doosan lineup Lee Jong-wook and Oh Jae-won both scored 3 times. Every single Doosan regular banged out at least one hit last night.

As for the Samsung offense, the word of the night was "fake rally." There were times that Samsung actually looked like they would break through and turn this game into a legit slug fest. They'd threaten to bust the game open, but only manage to score one or two runs. After a while, it turned into an "Empty the bench" game.

The action continues tonight in Daegu at 6pm local time. Game 1 starter, Bae Yeong-su gets the start for Samsung. Bae was last seen getting yanked in the middle of the 4th inning after allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and a walk. Bae will be opposed by Doosan's Game 2 starter, Matt Randel. In Game 2, Randel was a little wild, but fairly effective during his 4 innings of work. He allowed 1 run on 1 hit and 4 walks with 1 K. Hopefully, one of these guys will find out what its like to make it to the 5th inning. Samsung! Doosan! Bae! Randel! Catch playoff fever tonight on KBS!