Bears shut out sloppy Lions at home

Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul is packed with fans attending the game between the Samsung Lions and the Doosan Bears, Wednesday. Yonhap

With some strong pitching, tight defense and sloppy plays by their opponents, the Doosan Bears blanked the Samsung Lions 5-0 at home Wednesday.

With 20,448 fans at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Bears starter Cole Irvin tossed 5 1/3 shutout innings for his first victory since May 5, while the offense came through with some late insurance runs.

The Bears improved to 32-46-3 (wins-losses-ties), though they're still ninth place among 10 clubs. The Lions fell to 40-40-1, in seventh place after notching just one win in their past six games.

With both starters dealing — Irvin and his Lions counterpart, Gerson Garabito — the teams traded zeroes before the Bears broke through in the bottom of the fourth inning.

After Yang Eui-ji led off the inning with a double, Park Jun-soon cashed him in with a two-out single, though Park himself was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a double.

The Lions, after failing to score with two men aboard and nobody out in the third, wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the top fifth.

With two outs, Kim Seong-yoon, who entered the game leading the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) with a .347 batting average, hit a sharp grounder toward the hole on the left, but third baseman Park Jun-soon made an outstanding diving stab before throwing out the speedy Kim at first to end the Lions' threat.

The Lions loaded the bases for the second time in the top eighth but came up empty-handed once again.

The Bears needed three relievers to escape that inning unscathed. After left-handers Lee Byeong-heon and Ko Hyo-jun had created the mess, righty Park Chi-guk struck out Kang Min-ho and Kim Young-woong to keep the Bears up 1-0.

The Bears put the game out of the Lions' reach by tacking on four runs in the bottom eighth. Oh Myeong-jin opened the salvo with a two-run single, followed by Jake Cave's RBI double and Yang Eui-ji's run-scoring single.

Irvin scattered six hits for his fourth scoreless start of the season, and second such outing against the Lions in three meetings. He improved to 6-7 and lowered his ERA from 4.76 to 4.46.

He mixed in six different types of pitches: 38 sliders, 35 four-seam fastballs, eight changeups, seven sinkers, six sweepers and one curveball. The left-hander threw 60 of his 95 pitches for strikes.

Garabito, making just his second start in the KBO after replacing Denyi Reyes last month, was the hard-luck loser after allowing just one run on three hits in five innings. He struck out seven and walked two.

The Lions were undone by some baserunning gaffes.

With one out in the top third, Ryu Ji-hyuk was tagged out at third base after charging home on a botched bunt attempt by Kim Seong-yoon and then failing to slide back to the bag in time.

Koo Ja-wook led off the top sixth with a single, but on a follow-up single by Lewin Diaz that should have set up a promising rally, Koo made a wide turn at second base before getting thrown out by right fielder Jake Cave.