I've been interviewed at Ron Rollins'
Baseball Over There blog. Hardly newsworthy, but if you were at all curious about me, now you have a few answers. Ron does an excellent job of following baseball all over the world and his blog is worthy of your attention.
Yang Joon-hyeok finally hit his 341st homerun. What they don't mention was that he, erm, overslept for a 2 o'clock game the next day. My guess is, he hit the soju a little too hard and couldn't stagger to the ballpark in time. I wouldn't be surprised if 341 shots of soju were involved in his evening.
CJ Nitkowski is on twitter. The money quote comes from 6 days ago, "I am in Busan and the team warned us not to go out at night because the fans here hate us and are crazy."
Not baseball related, but Daegu related.
Daegu Pockets, a bi-lingual magazine for expats, has been launched and, well, it looks pretty cool and sounds fairly useful.
Here's a link to their website. I'm probably going to start posting slash stats in the next few days or so now that we actually have more than a few weeks of data. For hitters it'll be BA/OBP/SLG and for pitchers, probably just WHIP and ERA, unless I feel motivated to do K:BB.
On to the roundup...
Doosan vs. Hanwha
5/8 - Doosan 6, Hanwha 2
5/9 - Doosan 4, Hanwha 3
5/10 -Doosan 4, Hanwha 0
Doosan's relief pitching absolutely handcuffed the potent Hanwha offense this weekend.
On Friday Doosan starter Hwang Sang-sam pitched well enough to win, but it was the 4 shutout innings of relief work from the Doosan bullpen that lead them to victory. 4 Doosan relievers combined to limit Hanwha to only 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8. Doosan left fielder Kim Hyeon-su solid night at the plate. He went 3-4 with 2 doubles, a stolen base, 1 RBI and 1 run scored. He's Mr. Everything right now for Doosan. Doosan DH Choi Joon-seok drove in a pair of runs with a single during a key 3-run rally in the 3rd inning. Choi's single proved to be the game winning runs.
The Doosan bullpen came up big again on Saturday. Doosan starter Kim Sang-hyeon was chased from the game after only 4 1/3 innings of work. He allowed all 3 Eagles runs to score on 7 hits and 2 walks. Kim managed to strike out 3. 4 Doosan relievers combined to finish the game without giving up any runs. Hanwha ace Ryu Hyeon-jin was fairly mediocre in his Saturday start. He lasted only 5 innings(101 pitches, 60 strikes) and surrendered all 4 runs(3 earned) en route to his first loss. He allowed 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 6. Losing 3-1 in the bottom of the 5th inning, Doosan rallied to take the lead. With a runner on 3rd and 1 out, Kim Hyeon-su hit a grounder to short. Hanwha shortstop Oh Seon-jin struggled to find the handle and Kim was able to beat the throw. The runner on third was able to score on the play. The next batter, 3rd baseman Kim Dong-joo, clubbed a Ryu Hyeon-jin offering into the left field seats for a 2-run homer. Kim's blast would be the last time anyone crossed the plate on Saturday, both bullpens kept the other team off the scoreboard.
Doosan starting pitcher Jeong Jae-hoon gave the Doosan bullpen some relief on Sunday. Jeong worked 7 innings(97 pitches, 64 strikes) of shutout baseball. He allowed only 3 hits, 2 walks and 1 hit batter while striking out 6. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Doosan center fielder Min Byeong-hyeon delivered an RBI double to break the scoreless tie. Then, With runners on the corners and 0 outs, Doosan left fielder Kim Hyeon-su hit a 1-0 offering from Ahn Yeong-myeong over the right field fence for a 3-run homer. Kim finished the game 2-4 with 1 K.
SK vs. Seoul Heroes
5/8 - SK 4, Heroes 4
5/ 9 - SK 7, Heroes 3
5/10 - SK 8, Heroes 2
Friday's game took over 4 hours to complete. I was able to watch Samsung get clobbered by LG, take the subway home and catch the end of this game. The Heroes got all their scoring from 2 2-run homers. Jeong Su-seong went deep in the 3rd and Kang Jeong-ho launched one in the 8th. SK catcher Park Kyeong-wan was the SK offense. He hit a 2-run bomb in the 1st inning to give SK an early lead. Then, with SK losing 4-3 in the bottom of the 8th, Park hit an RBI single to left that scored Park Jae-hong and tied the game at 4. Nothing remotely interesting happened in the final 4 innings and SK was stuck with its 4th tie of the season.
Ken Kadokura rebounded from his a shaky start last week to give SK a quality effort. Kadokura tossed 6 1/3 innings(91 pitches, 54 strikes) of 2-run baseball. He allowed only 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. The only runs he allowed came in the 4th inning. Kadokura surrendered solo homers to Hwang Jae-gyun and Kang Jeong-ho. All of SK's offense came via the long ball. Park Jae-hong hit a 2-run bomb in the bottom of the 4th to tie the game at 2. SK infielder Park Jeong-kwon followed Jae-hong's blast with a grand slam in the 5th. 1st baseman Lee Ho-joon ended the scoring with a solo shot in the 6th to give SK a 7-2 lead. The Heroes mounted a fake rally in the 8th, but it was too little, too late.
The SK offense battered Heroes starter Jeong Won-sam, while SK ace Kim Kwang-hyeon was able to cruise. Jeong lasted only 4 2/3 innings on Sunday. He allowed 3 runs on hits and 2 walks. He managed to strike out 5. The guy that relieved him didn't do much better. After Jeong was removed, the Heroes bullpen threw BP. SK rallied for 3 runs in the 6th and 2 more in the 7th. Kim Kwang-hyeon, wasn't great, but he was good enough to win. Kim tossed 6 2/3 innings(114 pitches, 72 strikes) of 2-run baseball. He allowed 4 hits, 4 walks and 1 hit batsman while striking out 8. I get the impression that Kim is still suffering a WBC hangover, but he seems to be figuring things out.
Samsung vs. LG5/8 - LG 11, Samsung 3
5/9 - LG 5, Samsung 1
5/10 - Samsung 3, LG 1
If you are a Samsung fan, like me, and chose to attend Friday night's contest, like me, you walked home really disappointed. Samsung was awful. They couldn't pitch, they couldn't hit, they even had a little trouble catching and throwing. Whatever. 4 different Twins had at least 2 RBIs. The less said about this game the better, but Shin Myeong-cheol continued his surprising hot streak. he hit a solo homer in the 3rd inning that landed 5 rows in front of me in CF. I'm getting older and I chose not to join the scrum for the ball. Moving on...
More of the same for Samsung on Saturday, except when they hit their superfluous solo homerun in the 6th inning, everyone had to cheer. It was Yang Joon-hyeok's 341st career homer. I'm happy for the big fella. This record has been within his grasp for a while. I was surprised that he didn't do this earlier. LG's Jeong Jae-bok threw 5 shutout innings, while Bae Yong-su was pummelled mercilessly. This time only 2 LG batters had 2 RBI nights. Hey! That's half as many as Friday! I'm encouraged!
Francisco Cruceta gave the Lions a quality start and look at what they did with it! Cruceta threw 6 innings(95 pitches, 49 strikes) of shutout baseball. He allowed 3 hits, 2 walks and 1 hit batsman while striking out 2. In the 3rd inning, Samsung right fielder Park Han-yi hit a grounder to first to score Son Joo-in from 3rd and give Samsung a 1-run lead. Shin Myeong-cheol delivered RBI singles in the 5th and 7th to extend Samsung's lead. Oh Seung-hwan struck out the side in the 9th to record the save.
KIA vs. Lotte
5/8 - KIA 4, Lotte 3
5/9 - Lotte 5, KIA 4
5/10 - KIA 2, Lotte 1
If you had told me that the combined scoring for both teams would be in the single digits for all three games of this series, I would have called you a liar, liar.
On Friday night Lee Dae-ho was the Lotte offense. He hit a solo homer in the 2nd and a 2-run bomb in the 8th to account for all 3 Lotte runs. Lee was the only Giant that could solve KIA starter Yang Hyeon-jong. Yang worked 7 innings(104 pitches, 68 strikes) of 1-run baseball. He allowed 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 6. KIA had a pair of 2-run rallies in the 5th and 6th innings to account for their offense. Kim Won-seop hit a key RBI double in the 6th inning to give KIA a 4-1 advantage. After Lee's 2nd homer, Kim's double proved to be the difference in the ballgame. KIA closer Yoon Seok-min retired the final five batters in order to record the save. He struck out 3.
Saturday's game featured a strange pitching line from KIA starter Aquilino Lopez. He threw a complete game(122 pitches, 75 strikes), but surrendered 5 runs and most of them came during a 4-run rally in the 4th inning. Lopez allowed 7 hits and 1 walk while striking out 4. 5 of Lotte's 8 baserunners came during the key rally. Lotte was lucky that they were able to keep the score close, let alone come away with a W. Lotte starter Song Seung-joon was brutal. In only 1 2/3 innings of work, Song surrendered 3 runs on 2 hits and 4 walks. Somehow, he struck a batter out. That guy's face must've been red. The Lotte bullpen had to work 7 1/3 innings. It was mostly scoreless, except for reliever Kim Sa-yul surrendering a solo homer to KIA catcher Kim Sang-hoon in the 8th inning. Kim's homer made it a one run game, but that was as close as KIA could get. Jon Adkins shut the door by retiring the final 4 batters in order for the save.
Sunday featured the same inept offenses. KIA starting pitcher Rick Guttormson shutdown the Lotte offense for the 2nd time this season. Guttormson worked 7 innings(109 pitches, 68 strikes) of 1-run ball. He allowed only 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 9. Lotte starter Kim Yoo-shin needed 86 pitches to record 13 outs. He was pulled during the 5th inning. Kim surrendered only 1 run on 3 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4. With the score tied at 1 in the bottom of the 7th inning, Lotte's Lee Jong-min came in to pitch. He drilled the first batter, Hong Se-won, in the head. Hong was pulled for a pinch runner. The next batter, 1st baseman Jang Seong-ho hit a chopper to 2nd base. It was fielded cleanly, but the throw hit the heel of 1st baseman Lee Dae-ho's glove and he dropped it. KIA had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Then, KIA 3rd baseman Kim Sang-hyeon hit a bouncer up the middle for a basehit. It was slow enough to get the runner in from 2nd and give KIA a 2-1 lead. I can't believe he didn't bunt. KIA closer Yoon Seok-min threw a scoreless 9th inning for his 2nd save of the series.
