Daejeon: Starter Choi Won-tae fired seven innings of one-run ball and the lineup pounded out a dozen hits, as the Samsung Lions defeated the Hanwha Eagles 7-3 on Sunday to even their Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason series at one game apiece. After Choi allowed a first-inning home run to Luis Liberato, the Lions scored seven unanswered runs before a sellout crowd of 16,750 at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the best-of-five series now shifts to Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The first pitch will be 6:30 p.m. for both games. The Eagles opened the scoring with Liberato’s solo home run off starter Choi Won-tae with one out in the bottom of the first, moments after Eagles ace Ryan Weiss had struck out two batters in the top half of the frame.
But the Lions touched Weiss for a four-spot in the top of the third. They loaded the bases with a walk and two straight singles. Then Koo Ja-wook brought in the tying run with a fielder’s choice groundout, before Lewin Diaz doubled home the go-ahead run. Kim Young-woong followed that up with a two-run single to give the Lions a 4-1 lead.
They pushed their advantage to 5-1 in the top fourth thanks to Diaz’s double, with Koo getting tagged out home trying to make it a 6-1 game. Weiss had some trouble against the Lions during the regular season, pitching to a 4.05 ERA with a 2-3 record, and the trend continued in the postseason Sunday. He was charged with five runs on a season-worst nine hits in only four innings.
For the Lions, Choi settled down after that Liberato dinger. Choi only allowed three more hits over his next six innings, all of them singles. His fastball-changeup mix kept inducing soft contact early in the count, allowing Choi to go seven innings. Choi’s batterymate, Kang Min-ho, also helped out on offense by smacking a two-run home run in the top of the ninth to round out the Lions’ scoring.
The Eagles scored twice in the bottom ninth, with Roh Si-hwan hitting a solo home run, but it was too little, too late for the home team.