After his team emerged victorious from a four-hour marathon of a game Saturday evening, Doosan Bears rookie manager Lee Seung-yuop was totally drained.
"I don't think the word 'exhausted' even begins to describe how I am feeling now," Lee said with a weary smile, after the Bears beat the Lotte Giants 12-10 on Jose Rojas' three-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning. "I am losing my voice. I went through so many emotions in just this one game, and now we have 143 more games left."
The game featured multiple lead changes and late-inning drama. The Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead but then the Giants scored a run in the second, three runs each in the fourth and the fifth, and another in the sixth to open up an 8-3 lead.
The Bears battled back with five runs in the bottom seventh, highlighted by Kim Jae-hwan's game-tying, three-run homer.
They went ahead 9-8 in the bottom eighth, only to see the Giants tie things up in the top of the ninth. The Giants then took a 10-9 lead in the top 11th.
That set the stage for Rojas' dramatic walkoff homer in the bottom 11th.
Lee knows a thing or two about hitting dingers, since he's the all-time leader in Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) history with 467. And now that he's a manager, watching players succeed on the field hit Lee a little differently than when he shared success with his teammates during his playing days.
"When I was a player, I felt great whenever my teammates did well, but the excitement I feel for my players as their manager is on a much higher level," said Lee, who received flowers from the team's management and then got doused with water by his players. "I am happy to see any of the nine guys out there have success."
Lee said how the Bears won the game meant more to him than the victory itself.
"We were trailing by five runs and came back to win. I could feel the energy of this team," he said. "We went ahead, and then gave up the lead again. We battled to win in extra inning, and this victory is more significant than just a nine-inning victory."
The former slugger was buoyed by the performance of the two mashers in the middle of the lineup. Rojas drove in five runs from the No. 3 spot, while cleanup Kim Jae-hwan had three RBIs.
"We got just the kind of production we needed from those guys," Lee said. "Everyone swung the bat well, up and down the lineup."
Pitching, on the other hand, left much to be desired. Nine pitchers combined to issue 10 walks.
"That's something we have to address going forward," Lee said. "We have to keep minimizing our mistakes to become a better team. If we keep putting runners on base, it just makes life that much tougher for the fielders."
The Bears retrieved Rojas' home run ball, which was also the game-winning ball for Lee. The manager briefly posed with the ball for the media but insisted Rojas keep the ball, since it was the player's first home run in the KBO.
Source: Yonhap News Agency