With the Samsung Lions having won their first game of the Korean Series against the Kia Tigers on Friday, the respective aces of these two clubs will meet for the second time in the championship round Saturday.The Lions, the 4-2 winners Friday, will have homegrown right-hander Won Tae-in on the mound as they try to even up the series and become just the third team in Korea Baseball Organization history to overcome a 2-0 deficit to win a Korean Series title.The Tigers will send American right-hander James Naile to the hill in a bid to take a 3-1 series lead before heading back home in Gwangju for the remainder of the best-of-seven championship round.Naile and Won were Game 1 starters Monday, but that game was suspended in the top of the sixth inning due to rain at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul.Won tossed five shutout innings on only 66 pitches but was not available to come back out for the bottom sixth when the game resumed two days later.Naile allowed just on e run in five innings while striking out six, the lone blemish coming from a solo home run by Kim Hun-gon minutes before the game was put on hold.It was Naile's first game since Aug. 24, when he suffered a broken jaw after getting struck in the face by a line drive. Naile, who led the regular season with a 2.53 ERA, looked as sharp as he had been all season, relying on his signature pitch, sweeper, to fool one Lions hitter after another.Won, who tied for the league lead with 15 wins, gave up just two hits in Monday's game and kept opposing hitters off balance with an effective mix of changeups and sliders.Both Naile and Won would not have been available for Game 4 if the first two games had not been pushed back by inclement weather. The delay afforded the pitchers extra rest and allowed them to go on four days' rest.Before Friday's Game 3, Naile said he thought highly of Won, calling the 24-year-old pitcher "very, very good.""He's so consistent and mixes speeds as well as any young player I've ever seen," Naile said. "He really knows what he's doing. He's very mature on the mound, so he's fun to watch and he's fun to compete against. So I have a lot of respect for his game, so I'm going to do my best against him tomorrow."Source: Yonhap News Agency
- October 12, 2026
