Daegu: Flexing their home run muscle, the Samsung Lions knocked off the SSG Landers to move on to the next round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason Tuesday. Lewin Diaz and Lee Jae-hyeon hit back-to-back homers with two outs in the bottom eighth to lift the Lions to a 5-2 victory in Game 4 of the first-round series at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Lions, No. 4 seed, clinched the best-of-five series 3-1 after winning their second straight game at home against the third-seed Landers. The Lions will now go on to meet No. 2 seed Hanwha Eagles in the best-of-five second round starting Friday. Lions starter Ariel Jurado threw seven shutout innings and left the game with the Lions up 2-0. His bullpen imploded and squandered that lead in the top eighth, before Diaz smacked a two-run blast and Lee followed up with a solo shot to put the Lions up for good.
Closer Kim Jae-yoon pitched a perfect ninth for his third save of the series, to the delight of a sellout crowd of 23,680 fans in Daegu. The Lions became the first No. 4 seed to win the first round in 17 years. Diaz was voted the MVP of this series. In four games, the Dominican first baseman batted .375/.412/.625 with the big home run Tuesday and a team-high six RBIs.
The two starters, Jurado and his Landers counterpart, Kim Kwang-hyun, traded zeroes early on, before Kim blinked first. After striking out three of the first six batters he faced over two perfect innings, Kim issued two straight one-out walks in the third inning, which set the stage for Kim Ji-chan's RBI single. The ball dropped into shallow center, and center fielder Choi Ji-hoon double-pumped before making his throw to home plate, allowing the slow-footed Kang Min-ho to slide home safely. Kim handed out another free pass to load the bases later in the inning but got out of the jam by getting the dangerous Lewin Diaz to ground out to second.
Jurado kept the Landers' bats silenced, recording at least one strikeout in each of the first six innings. The Landers didn't get their first hit off Jurado until one out in the fifth inning, but it amounted to nothing. The Lions got an insurance run with Kim out of the game in the bottom sixth. Kim Seong-yoon drew a leadoff walk from reliever Noh Kyung-eun, who then allowed back-to-back singles to Koo Ja-wook and Lewin Diaz. On the second hit, Kim made an aggressive turn at third and ran through the stop sign put up by third base coach Lee Jong-wook. Kim then slid just ahead of catcher Lee Ji-young's tag to put the Lions up 2-0. The Landers challenged the initial safe call, but the decision was confirmed after a lengthy video review.
Jurado put up another zero in the top seventh, but then the Lions' bullpen imploded in the top eighth, squandering the two-run lead to waste Jurado's gem. Reliever Kim Tae-hoon walked Jeong Jun-jae to begin that inning and was promptly pulled in favor of Lee Seung-hyun, who gave up a pinch-hit single to Oh Tae-gon. The runners were now at the corners, and Park Seong-han brought both home with a double to left-center field to knot the score at 2-2. Park moved to third on a throwing error by shortstop Lee Jae-hyeon, with the Landers' best hitters due up.
Rookie reliever Bae Chan-seung came on and struck out Guillermo Heredia for the first out. He hit Choi Jeong with a fastball before striking out cleanup Han Yoo-seom. Right-handed fireballer Lee Ho-sung took over and retired Ko Myeong-jun, who had homered in three straight games entering Tuesday, on a flyout. The escape job was a prelude to the drama that ensued in the bottom eighth.
Lee Ro-un got two quick outs to begin the inning but walked Koo Ja-wook on four pitches. Diaz, who led the regular season with 50 homers and 158 RBIs, got the count to 2-1 and then destroyed a hanging changeup for a no-doubter to right field that put the Lions back up by 4-2. As soon as the ball left his bat, Diaz defiantly tossed aside his stick, turned to face his teammates in the third base dugout, and pounded his chest as he made his way toward first. Before the Landers realized what just hit them, Lee Jae-hyeon jumped on a first-pitch cutter from Lee Ro-un and sent it deep into the seats in left for a 5-2 Lions lead. The Landers' hope of forcing Game 5 disappeared on the vapor trails of the solo shot. Kim Jae-yoon then struck out two batters in the ninth to lock down the thrilling victory.