Finally. A series to be legitimately excited about. I had this one circled on my calendar. Two legitimately good, exciting teams. Some legit bad blood between them. Both jockeying for position in the standings. Doosan! SK! Kim Hyeon-su! Park Jae-sang! KBO FEVER! Catch it! (not to be confused with the H1N1 flu. That is not KBO fever)
6/19 - SK 8, Doosan 4
6/21, Game 1 - SK 8, Doosan 3
6/21, Game 2 - Doosan 11, SK 2
I soooo wanted to use another broom picture, but Doosan had to jump all over SK in the 2nd game on Sunday. Oh well.
Doosan starter Hong Sang-sam's luck finally ran out. Hong's numbers simply didn't match his ability. He's a good rookie pitcher by KBO standards, but he's not the kind of guy that should be racking up the numbers he's been putting up. The Wyverns caught up to him in a big way. Hong needed 61 pitches to record 5 outs. He surrendered 4 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks. SK starter Chae Byeong-yeong was only slightly better. The chubby lefty tossed 5 innings(90 pitches, 57 strikes) of 3-run baseball. He allowed 6 hits and 1 hit batsman while striking out 5. SK reliever Lee Seung-ho tossed 4 innings of relief to earn a save. I wouldn't be surprised if Lee joined the rotation at some point this season. It looks like the Wyverns want him to build up his endurance. SK 3rd baseman Choi Jeong busted out of a month long slump on Friday. Choi finished 2-3 with 2 RBIs. SK DH Kim Jae-hyeon also drove in a pair. In addition to his RBIs, Kim finished 2-3 with 2 walks and 2 runs scored.
Kim Kwang-hyeon turned in a vintage performance in game one of Sunday's double header. Kim tossed 8 innings(125 pitches, 75 strikes) of 2-run baseball. Kim allowed 5 hits and 4 walks while striking out 5. His walks were a little high, but I think it had more to do with the patience of the Doosan offense, not Kim's control. Doosan starter Kim Sang-hyeon was so bad that the Bears turned to foreign meatballer Juan Cedeno to gut out a few innings. Cedeno actually made an appearance without giving up runs. Good job by him! The SK offense was a total team effort. Only one SK starter didn't record a hit. I'm looking at you, center fielder Kim Kang-min! Left fielder Park Jae-sang, right fielder Cho Dong-hwa and 1st baseman Park Jeong-kwon all drove in 2 runs. Lead off man/2nd baseman Jeong Geun-woo finished 2-5 with 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases.
In game 2, it was SK's turn to have a truly horrific start followed by a bad bullpen. Starter Goh Hyo-joon was bad, but Oem Jeong-wook was worse. The knock out punch came after Goh left the game in the 4th inning. Oem inherited runners on 1st and 2nd. He loaded the bases with a 2-out walk. Any time you can walk a guy to bring a triple crown candidate to the plate, well, that's a move you've gotta make. Kim Hyeon-su quickly unloaded the bases with a grand slam homer. Kim's slam gave Doosan a 6-1 advantage and they never looked back. Doosan starting pitcher Lee Jae-woo was good enough to win. Lee tossed 5 innings(79 pitches, 49 strikes) of 2-run ball. He allowed only 5 hits and struck out 4. The Doosan bullpen tossed 4 scoreless innings of 3-hit baseball. SK didn't draw a single walk in the 2nd game. The loss put the Bears and Wyverns in a tie for 1st with Doosan ahead on percentage points.
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