Day: May 14, 2024

INCHEON, The Samsung Lions have been road warriors in South Korean baseball this season, for reasons their manager Park Jin-man thinks are based on the team’s youth.

The Lions have the best road record in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) at 16-6-1 (wins-losses-ties). But they have the fewest wins at home, in the southeastern city of Daegu, with a 7-11 win-loss record.

At 23-17-1, the Lions are tied for second place in the 10-team league, and they will try to improve on that road record Tuesday evening, when they visit the SSG Landers in Incheon, just west of Seoul.

When asked about the big home-road splits, Park attributed it to the pressure his young players must be feeling in front of the home crowd.

“We have a bunch of young position players. They will never admit to this, but I think they all feel pressure to play well at home,” Park told reporters at Incheon SSG Landers Field. “I think they will get better in that aspect as they gain more experience. Hopefully, we’ll start winning a few more ga
mes at home, too.”

Leading that youth movement for the Lions has been third baseman Kim Young-woong. Still only 20, Kim leads the Lions with nine home runs and a .542 slugging percentage, and sits in second place with 26 RBIs.

“I think he’s probably the one guy who isn’t feeling any pressure,” Park said of Kim with a smile. “There are players who do great in practice but can’t handle the pressure in game situations. He’s the type of player who thrives in games. And it’s been really gratifying watching him and other young guys grow. I feel like I am growing with them.”

In a show of his trust in the rising star, Park inserted Kim into the cleanup spot for the fifth straight game Tuesday. Kim started the season as the Lions’ No. 9 hitter.

“He’s going to remain our cleanup hitter for the foreseeable future,” Park declared. “He’s been doing great and there’s no reason to change anything.”

In a pregame chat with media, Kim said, contrary to what his manager thinks, he does feel some pressure from being his tea
m’s new cleanup hitter. But Kim said he’s trying to ride the wave while it lasts.

“It’s just fun playing games, and I am not thinking too much about my spot in the lineup,” Kim said. “I’ve been feeling comfortable since I started putting up some solid numbers.”

Even though he is on pace for more than 30 home runs, Kim said he doesn’t necessarily see himself as a home run hitter.

“I don’t want to start thinking about 30 homers because that would only bring more pressure,” Kim said. “I just want to keep making solid contact for doubles and triples. My goal is to be a gap hitter with some power.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

INCHEON, Han Yoo-seom, one of the most productive sluggers in South Korean baseball this year, is set to return from injury Tuesday evening for the SSG Landers after missing 10 days.

And for Landers manager Lee Sung-yong, it couldn’t have come a moment sooner.

“To be honest, we really felt his absence in the lineup,” Lee said during his media availability before hosting the Samsung Lions at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, some 30 kilometers west of Seoul. “It’s great to have him back in the middle of our lineup. He can really make a difference and give us a boost.”

Han was sidelined on May 4 with an adductor injury but ended up missing just the minimum 10 days on the injured list. He was tied for the lead in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) with 11 home runs and ranked second with 34 RBIs at the time. Han is now one homer off the league lead, and sits in fourth place in the RBI department.

In seven games without Han, the Landers went 3-4. During that stretch, the Landers ranked last in the KBO
with three homers and a .325 slugging percentage.

And they have fallen from fourth place to sixth place in the standings, with the Doosan Bears and the LG Twins leapfrogging them with eight straight wins and five straight wins, respectively.

Han, who went through a long stretching session after his batting practice, said he was itching to get going.

“I wasn’t seriously hurt, but the manager was nice enough to give me some time to rest and regroup,” Han said. “I played a couple of games in the minors but obviously, numbers there aren’t that important. Those games gave me a chance to see that I was ready to get back up here. Now that I’ve taken some time off, I will try to help the team the best I can.”

Han had mostly bat cleanup prior to his injury, but Lee put him in the fifth spot for Tuesday’s game, behind Choi Jeong and Guillermo Heredia.

Choi is tied for the KBO lead with 12 home runs, while Heredia is the league leader with a .389 batting average.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

INCHEON, It had been so long since SSG Landers starter Oh Won-seok last went at least six innings without giving up a run that when he accomplished that feat Tuesday night, he didn’t know how to react.

Oh shut down the Samsung Lions over six frames while giving up just two hits, as the Landers prevailed 9-2 in their latest Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular-season game. Before nearly 16,600 fans at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, just west of Seoul, Oh retired the first 11 batters of the game and matched his season-high with seven strikeouts.

The last time Oh tossed at least six shutout innings was June 16, 2022, against the KT Wiz.

“Honestly, I don’t remember that feeling,” Oh said with a sheepish grin afterward. “It’s been such a long time. This one feels pretty good.”

Oh is usually a fastball-slider pitcher, but on Tuesday he mostly stuck to his fastball and curveball. Of his 88 pitches, 62 were fastballs and 20 were curveballs, with only five sliders and one forkball mixed in.

“Before t
he game, the coaches and the analytics team told me my slider hasn’t been sharp lately, and they suggested I should try to mix it up a little,” Oh said. “I ended up throwing a lot of curveballs and I think it messed up with the hitters’ timing today.”

Though Oh put up zeroes on the board, he did run into some trouble. In the top of the fourth, he threw 11 straight balls, walking two batters and then falling behind 3-0 against No. 5 hitter Lee Jae-hyeon. The Landers were up 4-0 at that point.

“When I fell 3-0 in that count, I was just numb,” Oh said. “I tried to aim for the middle of the zone and throw it as hard as I could.”

That strategy worked, as Oh battled back a full count before getting Lee to ground out to shortstop.

Then in the sixth, Oh allowed back-to-back singles against the bottom of the order with two outs. Leadoff man Ryu Ji-hyuk smoked a grounder down the first base line for what could have been a two-run double.

First baseman Ko Myeong-jun bailed out Oh, making an outstanding diving grab
and stepping on the base to end the rally and the inning.

“The defense was awesome all game,” Oh said, before adding, “I owe Myeong-jun a nice dinner.”

Oh had a rough outing last Wednesday, when he gave up six runs in five innings on three hits. He also walked three batters and hit two others.

Before Tuesday’s game, Landers manager Lee Sung-yong told reporters that he wanted Oh, soft-spoken by nature, to start showing a little more fight on the mound.

Oh said he appreciated Lee’s pep talk last week.

“I think I’ve been expressing my emotions during games in my own ways,” Oh added. “It’s not like I am going to throw down my glove. But I understand what the manager wants to say.”

Oh lowered his ERA from 5.63 to 4.89, and he wants to ride this momentum the rest of this season.

“I’ve had way too many starts where the bottom just fell out in the fifth inning or later,” Oh said. “And I made it through six innings tonight. It gives me a lot of confidence.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency