Dominican ace Reyes tosses scoreless gem to send Lions to Korean Series

Samsung Lions starter Denyi Reyes pitches against the LG Twins during Game 4 of the second round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Oct. 19. Yonhap

• Published Oct 19, 2024 6:36 PM KST
• Updated Oct 19, 2024 11:08 PM KST

Taking the ball six days after winning his first postseason game in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Samsung Lions ace Denyi Reyes delivered an even better performance Saturday to send his club to the Korean Series for the first time in nine years.

Reyes threw seven shutout innings as the Lions eked out a 1-0 win over the LG Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul to win their best-of-five series in four games.

The Lions, No. 2 seed, will now take on the top-seeded Kia Tigers in the Korean Series, which starts at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Tigers' home of Gwangju, some 270 kilometers south of Seoul.

Reyes was the winning pitcher in the Lions' 10-4 victory in Game 1 on Sunday, when he held the Twins to three runs -- one earned -- over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out only one but also gave up just four hits.

On Saturday, Reyes earned his second win of the series after keeping the Twins bats in check by mixing in six different types of pitches. Once again, he did not have a high strikeout total, fanning just two batters, but limited the Twins to three singles.

With two victories and a miniscule ERA of 0.66, Reyes was voted the series MVP. He collected 42 of 55 votes from media.

Reyes threw a season-high 110 pitches on Saturday -- 39 four-seam fastballs, 23 cutters, 22 changeups, 19 sliders, six sinkers and one curveball.

The day began inauspiciously for Reyes, who hit the leadoff man Hong Chang-ki with his third pitch of the day. But catcher Kang Min-ho threw out Hong attempting to steal second, and after Shin Min-jae reached on an error, Reyes got Austin Dean to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play.

Reyes received more help from his defense in the second inning. Kang threw out another would-be base stealer, this time nabbing Oh Ji-hwan at second. And first baseman Lewin Diaz ran down a foul pop by Park Dong-won and made a difficult, over-the-shoulder catch for the final out of the inning.

From then on, Reyes was quietly effective, retiring 10 straight batters via pop outs, harmless flies to the outfield. He only had one strikeout during that stretch.

Reyes found himself in trouble in the sixth, after a single, a steal and a hit-by-pitch put runners at first and second for Shin Min-jae.

Following a mound visit, Reyes induced a rally-killing, 4-6-3 double play ball from Shin, and let out a scream of joy coming off the mound.

And Reyes gave himself more to celebrate in the seventh, when he retired the side in order on 13 pitches.

Reyes said he benefited from having extra days of rest, following two rainouts of this series. If the series had been played without any postponements, Reyes would have been asked to start Game 4 on Thursday on three days' rest.

"One more day of rest is always good," Reyes said. "Min-ho and I talked about pitching sequence from the first game and we tried to do the same one, and that worked."

As for pitching in the Korean Series next week, Reyes said, "I just want to try to do the same thing to give the team a chance to win games. Every time I pitch in the Korean Series, I will try to do the same."

Reyes and Twins starter Dietrich Enns were locked in a pitching duel all day, with Enns striking out eight over six shutout innings in his best postseason start so far.

But with Enns out of the game in the top eighth, Reyes' batterymate, Kang Min-ho, came through for the Lions with a solo home run that broke the scoreless deadlock.

With the count at 3-1 against lefty reliever Son Ju-young, Kang turned on a belt-high fastball and sent it 129 meters into the seats in left-center for his third career postseason homer.

Kang will finally play in his first Korean Series at age 39. He has played 2,369 games in the regular season without appearing in the Korean Series, more than any player in KBO history.

"I know people have been talking about me being the guy who played the most games without being in the Korean Series, and it's a relief to get that label off," Kang said with a smile. "While I am at it, I want to go all the way and win my first championship. It's taken me 21 years to get here and I think we have a great opportunity here."

Kang said he thought about seeing another pitch at 3-1 count to force Son to throw a strike, but changed his mind at the last second and swung hard. In fact, the Lions' coaches wanted him to take the pitch there, but Kang admitted he didn't see the sign.

"It was a 3-1 count and I didn't even bother trying to see any sign," Kang said, laughing. "I only found out afterward that they wanted me to take it. But it was a count where I could afford to be aggressive."

Kang said he tried to gather himself after the home run, knowing that his team was only up 1-0 and the Lions had to get six more outs.

"I didn't want to get carried away too much, so I ducked into the clubhouse and took a few deep breaths alone," Kang said. "I waited there until the end of the eighth inning. I knew we had to go through two more innings and that's where I kept my focus on the rest of the way."

Looking ahead, Kang said the Tigers are a powerful team but aren't invincible.

"They have a great lineup and a great pitching staff over there. But we thought the Twins had a great team and look what we just did here," Kang said. "If you can kill the other team's momentum at critical points, you can keep them off the board. That's the nature of baseball. I think we will be plenty competitive against the Tigers." (Yonhap)