By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
The SK Wyverns took a 3-2 Korean Series lead Saturday as four pitchers matched the previous day's 4-0 win over the Doosan Bears.
In Game 5 in Seoul, veteran Kim Jae-hyun's triple and doubles from Lee Ho-joon and Kim Kang-min put the Incheon-based team one win away from its first Korean Series title.
The Wyverns, who finished first in the pennant race, lost the first two games at home but won three consecutive away games.
In the 26-year-old Korean Series history, no team has won the title from 0-2 down.
The baseball club, which joined the league in 2000, is the only one that has not savored the championship among eight teams in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).
A superb pitching duel between the Wyverns' George Rayborn and the Bears' Matthew Randle forced scoreless innings until the seventh.
The Wyverns had five hits and two walks, while the Bears advanced on three hits and six walks.
It was the eighth inning that the monotonous scoreless tie was broken by the Wyverns. Outfielder Cho Dong-hwa led off the inning with an infield single and reached second base on second baseman Ko Young-min's error. Next batter Kim, a 13-year pro, connected a 0-1 pitch off the right-field fence for a triple, scoring Cho.
Cleanup hitter Lee hit a run-scoring double, which forced Bears reliever Im Tae-hoon, who threw four scoreless innings in Game 2, to be substituted for left-handed Lee Hei-chun, who triggered a bench-clearing brawl after throwing a beanball in Game 3.
But Lee was not enough to stop the fired-up Wyverns. He allowed a double to pinch hitter Kim Kang-min to make it 3-0 and his wild pitch gave up the other run in the four-run eighth.
A ceaseless batting struggle, which produced a total of one run and seven hits in Games 3 and 4, cost the Bears again.
From the second to sixth, the Bears' leadoff hitters advanced but the team could not capitalize on those chances for a run.
With runners on first and second in the bottom of the fourth, captain Hong Sung-heon's sacrifice bunt was turned into a double play, one of the Bears' five in the game, and in the next inning, they could not score with runners in scoring positions.
Rayborn, who gave up two runs over five innings in Game 1, tossed six scoreless innings but had a no decision.
Randle, who delivered five innings and yielded three runs in Game 2, sought his second Korean Series win with a six-scoreless-inning performance, but the Bears' shameful batters also left him with a no decision.
Game 6 will be played at 6 p.m. today in Incheon.