Friday, April 24, 2009

4/24 Roundup and News

The Joongang Daily's Jee-ho is taking a break from writing about North Korea with "The Spin." This time he dishes on the dispute between the KBO and its various broadcasting partners. Must read.

The Joongang Daily also gives us a write up on one of the bigger high school tournaments. I can't believe there is really a 6'8 pitcher in Korea. I've seen a few large Korean baseball players, but none at 6'8. I could see this guy generating a lot of overseas interest.

On to the roundup...

Samsung 4, LG 1
W - Francisco Cruceta(1-2), L - Shim Su-chang(1-2), S - Oh Seung-hwan (5)

LG outfielder Ahn Chi-yong drove in a run on an RBI single in the first inning and that was all the offense LG was able to muster against Cruceta. Cruceta worked 6 solid innings(92 pitches, 53 strikes). He allowed only the 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk. He appeared to pitch more to contact in this game and only tallied 3 K's. Samsung rallied for 4 runs in the 6th inning. Samsung 1B Chae Tae-in hit a 2-run single to put Samsung on the board. CF Park Han-yi and SS Park Jin-man also drove in runs in the inning. Oh Seung-hwan tossed a scoreless 9th to tie for the league lead in saves. Reports of his demise were terribly premature.

Hanwha 7, Seoul Heroes 6
W - Kim Hyeok-min(2-1), L - Jang Won-sam(0-2)

Didn't Jang Won-sam used to be good? He appeared to be as good as some of the other young, hard throwing lefties in the KBO last season. This year not so much. He left this game with a 6.38 ERA and 1.80 WHIP. If the Heroes want to even fake contending, Jang needs to get the results he got last season. Last night he was battered for 5 runs in 4 1/3 innings pitched(94 pitches, 62 strikes). He allowed 7 hits and 2 walks with 6 K's, but 2 of the hits went beyond the fences. As poor as Jang was on the mound, Doug Clark was excellent at the plate. The Heroes center fielder went 5-5 with a double, a homer, a stolen base, 4 RBI and 2 runs scored. He was Mr. Everything for the Seoul Heroes. His homer was part of a fake rally in the 9th inning. With the score 7-3 and the game looking very much in doubt, the Heroes fake rallied there way to a 7-6 loss. A 7-6 loss looks better than a 7-3 loss. At the plate for Hanwha, Kim Tae-gyun clubbed his 5th homer of the season.

SK 8, Lotte 2
W - Ken Kadokura(1-0), L - Cho Jeong-hoon(2-2)

Ken Kadokura turned in a very nice effort in his first KBO start. Kadokura worked 6 2/3 innings(91 pitches, 59 strikes) of 1 run baseball on six hits. He struck out 4 and didn't walk anyone. Park Jae-hong stole the headline from Kadokura by recording his 250th stolen base. Park is now the only player in the history of the KBO to record 250 homers and stolen bases. If only we had video footage of this historic event. He doesn't turn 36 until September, but he'd have to rack up at least 30 steals if he wanted to even have an outside shot of reaching 300/300. He hasn't stolen more than 20 bases in a season since 2006. He should be able to get to 300 homers sometime next year. He's currently got 277 career homers. He needs 9 more RBIs to reach 1000. Lotte starter Cho Joeng-hoon ran out of gas in the 5th inning. After being shutout for 4 innings, SK exploded for 6 runs in the 5th. SK outfielder Park Jeong-kwon hit a key homer that busted the inning wide open.

Doosan 3, KIA 0
W - Lee Jae-woo(1-0), L - Yim Joon-hyeok(0-1), S - Lee Yong chan(5)

This is the third day in a row that Doosan has won the game in the late innings. This time, Doosan and KIA were locked in a 0-0 tie that went into the 10th inning. In the top of the 10th, Doosan rallied for 3 runs off of the KIA bullpen. Kim Dong-joo scored on Jeong Soo-bin's RBI triple. After a walk to Koh Yeong-min, Jeong was driven in by SS Son Si-hyeon. Finally, Choi Seung-hwan drove in Koh on an RBI double. KIA bullpen Meltdown...complete. Doosan reliever Jin Ya-kob was asked to start and he did his best. Jin worked 4 scoreless innings(62 pitches, 40 strikes) for the Bears. He allowed only 3 hits and 2 walks with 2 K's. Senor Smoke, Aquilino Lopez, tossed 7 shutout innings(115 pitches, 68 strikes) for the Tigers. He allowed 6 hits and 3 walks with 5 K's, but sadly couldn't get any help from his offense.

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