What rust? Captain leads Lions' power surge in KBO postseason after long layoff
Lewin Diaz of the Samsung Lions hits a two-run home run against the LG Twins during Game 1 of the second round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, Oct. 13. Yonhap
By hammering three home runs in their first game in more than two weeks Sunday, the Samsung Lions put to rest any concerns about rust.
Koo Ja-wook, Kim Young-woong and Lewin Diaz each went deep in the Lions' 10-4 win over the LG Twins to begin the best-of-seven second round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.
In a quirky structure in the Korean league, higher-seeded teams enjoy longer breaks than their opponents in every series. The Lions, after finishing second in the regular season, earned a bye to the second round and had last played on Sept. 28 before Sunday's game.
The Twins ranked third in the regular season, and they had to knock off the KT Wiz in a hard-fought, five-game series last week to reach this stage.
The "rust vs. rest" debate often dominates the KBO postseason. For teams coming off long layoffs, hitters have typically struggled to get into the rhythm in early innings, while their counterparts, as fatigued as they may be, have tended to look sharper.
Samsung Lions starter Denyi Reyes pitches against the LG Twins during Game 1 of the second round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, Oct. 13. Yonhap
That narrative didn't play out Sunday. The Lions scored in the first inning off a sacrifice fly following a double and a single, and by the fifth inning, they had three homers and every member of the starting lineup had at least a hit. They finished with 14 hits overall.
Koo fired the opening salvo in the third inning with the Lions up 1-0. After two straight singles that opened the inning, Koo jumped on a belt-high cutter from starter Choi Won-tae and sent it 125 meters into the right-center field seats. Kim led off the fourth with a solo shot, and Diaz landed another big blow with his two-run blast in the fifth, putting the Lions up 7-1.
Koo had three hits in this game, as the Lions captain picked up right where he left off in the most productive regular season of his career.
Koo set career highs with 33 home runs, 115 RBIs and a .627 slugging percentage, leading the way for the best home run-hitting in the regular season.
The offensive outburst made a winner out of Lions starter Denyi Reyes, though he didn't even need that much run support.
He held the Twins hitless through three innings, and the only damage done against him was a solo shot by Oh Ji-hwan in the fourth. The Twins scored two more runs off an error by Diaz with Reyes out of the game and another run with Shin Min-jae's RBI single in the seventh inning, but that was the extent of their offense.
Reyes tossed 101 pitches, 67 for strikes. He mixed in cutters, changeups, sliders and two-seam fastballs to get plenty of weak contact, and ended up getting eight groundouts. (Yonhap)