Lions beat Wiz to reach brink of Korean Series title
Park Seung-kyu of the Samsung Lions celebrates after hitting a two-run double against the KT Wiz during Game 4 of the Korean Series at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu, Saturday. Yonhap
DAEGU — The Samsung Lions are a win away from capturing the South Korean baseball championship.
The Lions defeated the KT Wiz 10-5 in Game 4 of the Korean Series at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu on Saturday, taking the 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven battle.
The Lions can clinch their first Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) title in 12 years with a victory in Game 5 scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.
On the 19 previous occasions when a team went down 3-1 in the Korean Series, only the 2013 Lions rallied to win the championship.
After allowing a run in the top of the first inning, the Lions responded with a six-spot in the bottom first en route to their third straight victory in this series.
No. 2 hitter Park Seung-kyu drove in three runs, and the 19-year-old starter Jang Chan-hee gave the Lions four innings of one-run ball. Reliever Lee Jae-hee worked 2 2/3 perfect innings.
The teams combined for 19 walks and hit-by-pitches, the most ever in a Korean Series game.
The Wiz took a 1-0 lead on just the ninth pitch of the game, as No. 2 hitter Jang Jin-hyuk smoked a solo home run off Jang.
However, that lead was short-lived, as the Lions exploded for six runs with two outs in the bottom first against starter Logan Allen.
A single and a walk had two men aboard for Lewin Diaz, who started the onslaught with a single to tie the game at 1-1.
Kim Young-woong followed by punching a single through the hole on the left to put the Lions ahead 2-1. Lee Jae-hyeon drew a walk to load the bases, and Allen clipped Ryu Ji-hyuk's elbow guard with a pitch to force in a run, making it a 3-1 game.
Then No. 9 hitter Kim Do-hwan blew the game wide open with his bases-clearing double that gave the Lions a 6-1 lead.
Kim hit a deep fly toward right fielder Ahn Hyun-min, who appeared to have misjudged the ball off the bat and twisted and turned his way toward the fence. Ahn never even got his glove on the ball as it fell on the warning track.
The Lions sent 11 batters to the plate in the first inning. The six runs scored were the most ever in any bottom of the first inning in KBO postseason history.
Allen finally got the hook after giving up a single to Koo Ja-wook to begin the bottom second. He allowed six runs on five hits, three walks and one hit-by-pitch against 12 batters he faced.
The Lions got a run off reliever Bae Je-seong in the bottom third, with Park Seung-kyu lining a single that went off the glove of shortstop Jang Jun-won for a 7-1 lead.
Jang Chan-hee, who became the second youngest pitcher to start a Korean Series game at 19 years, one month and two days old, mostly settled down after the first-inning homer, sitting down nine straight batters in one stretch.
That streak ended when Jang walked Sam Hilliard and gave up a single to Kim Hyun-soo with one out in the fourth. But the youngster retired the next two batters on harmless flyballs.
The Lions turned to the bullpen to begin the fifth, but the move only ended up giving more hope to the Wiz, who scored three times without the benefit of a hit.
Satoshi Miyamori gave up a single and two walks to load the bases. Bae Chan-seung was brought in, and Jang Jin-hyuk's groundout scored a run for the Wiz, before Ahn Hyun-min drew a walk to load the bases again.
Bae then walked the next two batters, pushing in two more runs as the Lions' lead shrunk to 7-4.
Lee Jae-hee was summoned as the third Lions pitcher of the inning, and he got the next two outs to kill the rally.
The Lions issued five walks in the fifth, the most in a single inning in KBO postseason history.
The Lions gave themselves some breathing room in the bottom fifth, when Park Seung-kyu, with runners at first and second, doubled off the left field wall to bring home both men for a 9-4 lead.
The ball caromed off the fence and rolled back toward the field, well past left fielder Jang Jin-hyuk. Lee Jae-hyeon, the runner at second, scored easily, and the lucky bounce allowed the speedy runner Kim Ji-chan to score all the way from first.
Lee Jae-hee then threw clean sixth and seventh innings to kill any hope of a comeback, striking out three batters in the process.
The Lions went up 10-4 in the seventh inning thanks to Koo's RBI double.
The Wiz got a run back in the top eighth as Kim Min-hyuck came off the bench to hit a solo home run, but it did nothing to alter the game's outcome.