SEOUL– With a relentless offense and a tireless bullpen, the Doosan Bears have made history in the South Korean baseball postseason.
The Bears will play for the South Korean baseball championship for a record seventh consecutive year, after hammering the Samsung Lions 11-3 to sweep the best-of-three penultimate round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.
Next up against the Bears in the Korean Series will be the KT Wiz, the regular season champions who earned a bye to the championship round. Game 1 is 2 p.m. Sunday at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, which will serve as the neutral venue for the entire series due to cold weather conditions.
The Bears, which finished fourth in the regular season, became the first wild card winner to reach the Korean Series since the wild card was added in 2015.
They have been in every Korean Series since 2015, and they won it all in 2015, 2016 and 2019. They’re the first to appear in seven straight Korean Series since the KBO’s inception in 1982.
The red-hot lineup pounded out 15 hits and produced multiple runs in each of the first four innings.
Designated hitter Jose Miguel Fernandez, who went 4-for-5 with three RBIs Wednesday and batted 5-for-9 for the series, was voted the MVP of the round. The Cuban star earned 40 out of 78 votes from the media to become the first foreign hitter to be the MVP of this stage in 17 years.
Doosan manager Kim Tae-hyoung has been in charge for each of the past six Korean Series. He’s the first KBO manager to reach the championship round in each of his first seven years.
“Our hitters are really locked in, and we’re getting production from up and down the lineup,” Kim said. “Even some guys who aren’t at the top of their game are getting hits.”
The Bears jumped on Samsung starter Baek Jung-hyun right from the first inning. They strung together three straight one-out singles, the last an RBI hit by Kim Jae-hwan. Yang Suk-hwan followed up with a sacrifice fly to center for a 2-0 lead.
The Lions, who wasted two bases-loaded opportunities in Tuesday’s loss, again failed to score with the bases juiced in the top of the second Wednesday.
Doosan starter Kim Min-gyu, pitching on two days’ rest, hit a batter, walked another and gave up a single to put three aboard. But he battled No. 9 hitter Kim Sang-su to full count before getting him to fly out to center to kill that rally.
The Bears put up a three-spot in the next half inning.
With a runner at second, Kim Jae-ho hit a fortuitous triple to put the Bears ahead 3-0. Kim sent a soft fly to toward the foul line, and right fielder Koo Ja-wook whiffed on a diving catch attempt and let the ball bounce past him for a three-bagger.
Baek’s night was done, but the new pitcher, Choi Ji-guang, only added to the Lions’ woes.
He walked the first batter he faced to put runners at the corners, and then Jose Miguel Fernandez brought both home with a double to deep left for a 5-0 lead.
The Lions opened the third inning with two straight singles against new pitcher Choi Seung-yong, but the promising rally only yielded one run.
Jose Pirela flied out to right to advance a runner from second to third. And the best that cleanup Oh Jae-il could do was hit an RBI grounder to shortstop, as new reliever Lee Young-ha traded a run for an out.
And for whatever the Lions did, the Bears had an answer, as they went up by 7-1 with a pair of runs in the bottom third.
The Lions’ third pitcher, Won Tae-in, hit Heo Kyoung-min to begin that inning. After a sacrifice bunt, Park Sei-hyok lined a double to right field for a 6-1 lead.
Won issued a walk, and two batters later, Fernandez picked up his third RBI of the night with a single to left.
The Lions’ bats remained frigid. In the top fourth, they got two straight two-out singles from the bottom of their order, but leadoff Park Hae-min’s groundout to second stranded both runners.
The game got out of control in the bottom fourth. Two singles and a wild pitch had runners at second and third for the Bears, and Kang Seung-ho cleared the bases with a double and put the Bears up 9-1.
The Lions all but waved the white flag in the bottom sixth. After getting two outs, reliever Sim Chang-min loaded the bases with two walks and a single. He then walked Kim Jae-ho on four pitches to let in the Bears’ 10th run.
Yang Suk-hwan’s two-out single in the seventh made it 11-1 for the Bears.
The Lions got a run back in the eighth and another in the ninth, not nearly enough to change the game’s outcome.
Lee Young-ha ate up 3 2/3 innings out of the bullpen to earn his third relief win of this postseason. No. 7 hitter Kang Seung-ho chipped in three hits and two RBIs.
Source: Yonhap News Agency