By Jonathan Sanfilippo
Staff Reporter
It took the Doosan Bears some time to get used to playing baseball again when they returned to the field Thursday night to play their first game in two weeks.
But after struggling early in the contest, the Bears eventually regained their form and rallied back from a four-run deficit to beat the Samsung Lions 8-4 in the first game of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO)'s second-round playoff series at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul.
Lee Jong-wook sparked the Bears with three hits, while Oh Jae-won and Lee Dae-soo contributed two hits apiece. The team also had three relief pitchers combine to throw seven scoreless innings.
With the win, the Bears, who finished second in the KBO's regular-season standings to earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs, built a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven, second-round series. The Bears and Lions will play Game 2 of their series Friday in Seoul. The winner of the series will advance to face the reigning KBO champion SK Wyverns in the Korean Series later this month.
The Lions, who finished fourth in the regular-season standings and swept the Lotte Giants in the first round of the playoffs, took the lead Thursday by scoring four runs in the top of the third inning. Yang Joon-hyuk ripped a bases-loaded single into right field with no outs to drive in the first run. The next batter, Jin Kap-yong, added another RBI single, then Choi Hyung-woo was hit by a pitch to drive in another run. Chae Tae-in added a sacrifice fly that drove in Jin with one out to put the Lions up 4-0 at the end of the inning.
However, the Bears responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Hong Sung-heon hit a one-out sacrifice fly to drive in Oh. Ko Young-min then added an RBI triple and scored on a single by Lee Dae-soo to cut the Bears' deficit to 4-3.
The Bears plated another run in the fifth when Oh hit an RBI single with no outs that tied the score 4-all.
They took the lead by scoring three more runs in the seventh. Kim Dong-joo hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Lee Jong-wook. Hong Sung-heon grounded out to drive in Oh, and Kim Hyun-soo scored on an error to give the Bears a 7-4 lead.
Lee Jong-wook drove in the Bears' final run with an RBI triple in the eighth.
The Bears' Jung Jae-hoon pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn the win, and Lee Jae-woo pitched two more scoreless inning to get the save.