Wiz closer Park Yeong-hyun says belief in himself, catcher led to big Korean Series save

Even with his team enjoying an 8-0 lead over the Samsung Lions after six innings of the first game of the Korean Series on Tuesday, KT Wiz closer Park Yeong-hyun stayed prepared for a save opportunity that did not seem likely to come.

By getting up in his bullpen to stretch and throw a few pitches at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul, Park said he was just sticking to his usual routine.

"No one can tell what will happen over the course of a game, and so I had gone through all of the usual things that I normally do," Park said afterward. "My coaches had already told me I was going to pitch in this game no matter what. I was ready."

However, even the most pessimistic of Wiz fans would not have predicted the game would spin out of control the way it did.

One Wiz reliever after another struggled to record outs, and the Lions put up a five-spot in the seventh and scored another in the eighth inning before Park was brought in, as they turned a potential laugher into a nail-biting thriller.

Park was called in to put out the fire with one out and the bases loaded in the top of the eighth inning, and the Wiz nursing an 8-6 lead.

The first pitch Park threw to Ryu Ji-hyuk missed the zone badly. Then on the next pitch, Ryu got the barrel on the ball and hit a flyball to left field. It would have been a sacrifice fly but Park caught a lucky break because the runner at third happened to be Koo Ja-wook, who had been playing through lingering effects of a hamstring injury and who could not sprint home on the play.

"I thought I was going to be called in before the runners got on. All I was thinking about at the moment was to get outs no matter what," Park said.

Park was not as lucky moments later, when he threw a wild pitch over the head of his catcher Han Seung-taek, allowing Koo to score the Lions' seventh run.

"I was feeling pretty good about myself after the second out of that inning," Park said. "And then the wild pitch was a wake-up call for me. I had to really bear down after that."

Park did eventually get the final out of the eighth inning. And after the Wiz wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the bottom of the eighth, Park came back out for the top of the ninth inning to try to close out the game.

The 23-year-old was at his best in that inning. He struck out all three batters he faced swinging on a slider.

"My fastball was pretty good, but Seung-taek kept calling for sliders," Park said. "I trusted him in those moments. And those were really good sliders, too. I felt confident they could not hit them."

This was Park's first game since the Wiz's last regular-season game on Oct. 12. Throughout his five-year career, Park had faced criticism that he often struggles coming off a long layoff but, save for that wild pitch, he submitted a strong outing Tuesday night.

"I think we can put that notion to rest after this game," Park said with a smile. "I will try to be even better tomorrow."