Naile strengthens stellar postseason resume in Tigers' victory

GWANGJU — Two years after helping the Kia Tigers win the Korean Series title with two strong outings, right-hander James Naile marked his return to the South Korean baseball postseason with a stellar performance Saturday.

Naile held the LG Twins to a run on four hits over seven innings, as the Tigers emerged with a 5-1 victory in the opening game of the best-of-five first round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.

Before a sellout crowd of 18,900 at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in the southwestern city of Gwangju, Naile struck out six batters — five of them using his bread-and-butter pitch, the sweeper.

Nailed started the game with two strikeouts in the first inning. He got two quick outs in the second but then surrendered a solo home run to Song Chan-eui after leaving a sweeper over the heart of the plate.

The Tigers backed up Naile with a couple of long balls of their own — Harold Castro's game-tying solo shot in the bottom second and Kim Do-yeong's go-ahead solo homer in the bottom fourth. And that proved enough run support for Naile.

Naile caught a break in the third inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Park Dong-won, but after Gu Bon-hyeok fanned on a bunt attempt, Park got thrown in a rundown between first and second.

After Gu grounded out, Naile allowed two straight two-out singles before getting the dangerous Austin Dean to pop out to shortstop.

Naile ran into his biggest trouble in the sixth, when he gave up a leadoff double and then a walk to put two men aboard, with the meat of the order coming up.

Naile threw four straight sweepers at cleanup Moon Jeong-bin, who whiffed on the fourth one for a strikeout. Naile then induced a 4-6-3 double play ball off Moon Bo-gyeong's bat.

Naile's day was done after a clean seventh inning, and three relievers took care of the rest.

In the 2024 Korean Series, Naile made two starts against the Samsung Lions, allowing just three earned runs in 10 2/3 innings for a 2.53 ERA and striking out 13 batters. Following Saturday's game, Naile's career postseason ERA now stands at 2.04.

Naile said he was "really proud" of the complete team effort in the victory.

"I thought we all played well; we pitched well, we hit well and we played defense well," Naile said. "That is going to win games."

Naile said he felt the sixth inning was "going to be the inning that was going to decide the game" and he had to really bear down to escape the frame unscathed.

"My strength is ground balls. I always think I can get out of any inning with a double play," he said. "So the focus became I need to get a strikeout or a pop out, and I need to get a double play ball. And sure enough, I was able to get a big strikeout there. And I always trust my defense to turn a double play and got Moon Bo-gyeong to hit a ground ball and that was huge."

Naile said his experience in the 2024 Korean Series has helped him immensely in his preparation for this year's postseason.

"In 2024, I had never been in a game that big or that important even in the major leagues. So the Korean Series was incredible," he said. "And then coming out today, I knew that this was a big game to set the tone, be the first pitcher out and so that is what I tried to do."

Naile did not have great numbers against the Twins in the regular season, with a 4.58 ERA in three meetings, but he said he had already put those struggles behind him before Saturday's game.

"Luckily, none of regular season counts at this point. Stats don't matter at this point," he said. "It is all about execution and I thought a lot of the games versus LG, I actually pitched okay and I just didn't have much luck. And that's baseball. I just tried to refocus for the playoffs, basically forget about anything that happened previously and focus on today."

Naile playfully planted a peck on Kim's cheek after the game, a rare show of affection by the American pitcher, in Kim's words. After that fourth-inning homer, Kim added another dinger in the eighth inning to seal the win.

"Just so proud of him," Naile said of his teammate. "This is the first game of the series. It is always difficult, a lot of pressure, a lot of distractions today. And to come out and hit two home runs is very difficult to do, so I am really proud of him."

Naile revealed that he had done the same with fellow pitcher Yang Hyeon-jong when the Tigers won the 2024 Korean Series and added, "I hope that we can do that again. I will kiss (Kim) again if we win."