Defending champions Samsung Lions clinch berth in baseball final
Defending champion Samsung Lions beat the LG Twins 9-3 Monday, clinching their third consecutive berth in the championship round of South Korea's top baseball league.
The victory brought the Lions' record to 76 wins, 50 losses and two draws, with five games left in the 133-game season, and gave them a five-game cushion over the second-place SK Wyverns. Also on Monday, the Wyverns clinched the second place with a 4-1 win over the Hanwha Eagles.
In the eight-team Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), the first-place club from the regular season receives the bye to the Korean Series. The third- and fourth-place teams face off in the best-of-five first round series, and the winner goes on to meet the No. 2 regular season team in the next round, also best-of-five.
The Korean Series is a best-of-seven affair.
The Lions, based in Daegu, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, also finished first in the regular season last year and defeated the SK Wyverns in the Korean Series. In 2010, the Lions were second in the regular season and edged the Doosan Bears in the second round to reach the Korean Series, where the Wyverns then swept the Lions in four games.
The Lions have also won KBO championships in 1985, 2002, 2005 and 2006.
This season, the Lions welcomed back slugger Lee Seung-yeop, the face of the franchise who'd left Samsung to play in Japan from 2004 to 2011. The five-time most valuable player (MVP) in the KBO has responded with 21 home runs and 85 runs batted in with a .307 average, all second on the team.
Under second-year manager Ryu Joong-il, the Lions had a slow start and were in seventh place as recently as May 29. Powered by strong bullpen and opportunistic offense, they climbed to third place by late June and has not relinquished the top spot since July 8.
The Bears have locked down a playoff berth at 66-60-3 win-loss-draw record through Monday. The fourth and the final playoff spot is still up for grabs between the Lotte Giants and the Kia Tigers.
The Tigers pounded the Giants 10-0 Monday. The Giants, who have won just one of their last 14 games, are leading the Tigers by 2.5 games with three games left. The Tigers have four games remaining, and can overtake the Giants if they win them all and the Giants lose all their remaining games.
The playoff this year is scheduled to begin on Oct. 8 and the Korean Series, if it goes the distance, will end on Nov. 1.
In the playoffs, a tie will be declared after 15 innings, up from 12 innings in the regular season, and an additional game will be played. The games will start at 6 p.m. on weekdays and 2 p.m. on weekends. (Yonhap)