SEOUL– After spending five years on the outside looking in, the Samsung Lions made a long-awaited return to the South Korean baseball postseason this year.
But the party only lasted two games, as the Lions got swept by the Doosan Bears in the penultimate round of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) playoffs on Wednesday.
The Lions dropped the first game 6-4, during which they failed to score on two bases-loaded opportunities. In the fifth inning, Oh Jae-il bounced into a 4-6-3, rally-killing double play against reliever Hong Geon-hui, who threw him seven straight fastballs. In the very next inning, the top of the Lions’ order went quietly with one out and bases juiced.
They got destroyed by the score of 11-3 in their season-ending loss Wednesday, while wasting another bases-loaded chance before the Bears put the game out of reach. They did cash in a run after loading the bases in the eighth, but they were already down 11-1 at that point.
Frigid bats wouldn’t have been as much of an issue had pitchers held up their end of the bargain.
The Lion boasted three starters who finished in the top 10 in wins and ERA in the regular season. Of the trio, only David Buchanan, who gave up two earned runs in seven innings in Game 1, did what he was expected to do.
Baek Jung-hyun, the team ERA leader at 2.63, was roughed up for four runs on five hits in just 1 1/3 innings on Wednesday. This was his shortest outing all year.
The third member of the trio, Won Tae-in, came out of the bullpen on Wednesday, as the Lions were desperately trying to stay alive in the series. By the time he took the mound in the second inning, though, the Lions were already down 5-0. Won didn’t help the cause, allowing two earned runs on two hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch in 1 1/3 innings.
But perhaps the most shocking moment for the Lions came in the top of the ninth in Tuesday’s game.
The Lions were only down 4-3, and after two outs, closer Oh Seung-hwan was summoned to finish off the inning and possibly set the stage for a dramatic rally in the bottom ninth.
At least that’s how manager Huh Sam-young explained his decision after the game. And Oh, who led the regular season with 44 saves and is an all-time leader with 339 saves, seemed like the perfect man to do just that.
But as former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson once said, everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth.
Park Sei-hyok landed the first blow with a solo home run against Oh. Two more jabs followed in the form of consecutive singles, and Jung Soo-bin threw the knockout punch with a double that put the Bears ahead 6-3.
Oh didn’t pitch Wednesday.
The Lions had the second-best record in the regular season to earn a bye to this round, while the fourth-seed Bears had to play the wild card game and then a best-of-three series against the No. 3 LG Twins before facing the Lions.
The Lions had last played on Oct. 31 before opening the series against the Bears on Tuesday. They had their rotation all refreshed and lined up, and their batters were licking their chops against an exhausted Doosan bullpen.
But the Lions instead watched the Bears pound out 27 hits to score 17 runs in two games. They didn’t have an extra-base hit on Wednesday.
Samsung manager Huh Sam-young chose to look on the bright side, saying the early exit should lay strong foundation for the future.
“This is all part of our learning process, and I’ve been able to figure out how to prepare this team for next year,” Huh said. “I think that the pressure of a must-win situation really affected our players today.”
Huh lamented a slew of missed opportunities on offense.
“Some of our veterans didn’t swing the bat the way they’re capable of,” the manager said. “I think they carried too much burden on their shoulders. But I don’t think we lacked anything in our preparation. We just failed to execute our plans or to play to our strengths.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency