The pitching staff fell apart. The ace’s first win in his Korean Series debut was also washed away.
Won Tae-in started Game 1 of the Korean Series against the Kia Tigers at the Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on April 21. In the first inning, Won struck out Park Chan-ho, Socrates Brito, and Kim Do-young to complete a three-hit shutout inning. In the second inning, he got Choi Hyung-woo and Na Sung-beom to ground out to second and swinging at a wild pitch, respectively, before giving up a triple to Kim Sun-bin that cleared the top of the left field fence. But he got Choi Won-joon to fly out to center field to end the inning.
In the third inning, Won put runners on first and second with a leadoff single by Kim Tae-gun and a sacrifice bunt by Seo Gun-chang. Park struck out Chan-ho Park, but a wild pitch put runners on second and third. Won Tae-in got Socrates to fly out to center field. In the fourth inning, Won gave up two walks to put two runners on base, but he finished the inning without allowing a run. In the fifth, he retired Kim Tae-gun, Seo Gun-chang, and Park Chan-ho on eight pitches.
Samsung scored the first run in the top of the sixth inning on a leadoff solo home run by Kim Heon-gon.
Later, Rwin Diaz and Kang Min-ho drew walks to put runners on first and second with no outs. At this point, the umpires suspended the game due to the heavy rain. After 45 minutes of waiting, the rain did not stop and the game was declared suspended. Won Tae-in threw 66 pitches until the fifth inning, allowing two hits, two walks, three strikeouts, and no runs. With such a low pitch count, a complete game victory seemed possible. However, the game was suspended and he was no longer able to pitch.
The game, which was scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. on the 22nd, 메이저사이트 was postponed for another day due to rain and was finally played at 4 p.m. on the 23rd. Samsung had runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the sixth inning, but failed to capitalize on Kia’s Pil Seung-jo Jeon Sang-hyun. Kim Young-woong laid down a sacrifice bunt and leadoff man Diaz was thrown out at third. The runners were safe. With runners on first and second, Park Byung-ho struck out swinging. Yoon Jung-bin drew a walk to load the bases and Lee Jae-hyun grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning.
Samsung sent left-hander Lee Seung-hyun to the mound.
The left-hander struck out Socrates Brito and Kim Do-young on swinging strikes. With the bases loaded, he allowed a single to Choi Hyung-woo, but struck out Na Sung-beom on three pitches to end the inning. Lee gave up a walk to leadoff hitter Kim Sun-bin in the seventh inning. The Samsung bench then sent right-hander Kim Tae-hoon to the mound. Choi Won-jun singled and Kim Tae-gun sacrificed him to second and third with runners on first and second, and Lim Chang-min took over.
Lim, who has been a key member of Samsung’s pitching staff with 28 saves this season, got the first batter, Seo Gun-chang, to ground out to short, but Park Chan-ho made a wild pitch at the plate, allowing Kim to score from third base. Meanwhile, Choi Won-joon reached third base to tie the game at 1-1. Park walked to load the bases. The next batter, Lim Chang-min, committed another wild pitch. Choi Won-joon came home to make it 1-2. Socrates followed with a single to make it 1-3. Samsung’s bench called on Yoon-soo Kim in relief. The new pitcher gave up an RBI single to left to Kim Do-young and the gap widened. Kia drove in a run in the eighth inning with an RBI double by Kim Tae-gun.
Samsung, on the other hand, had two offensive chances in the eighth and ninth innings, but failed to capitalize. In the end, it was a 1-5 loss and Won Tae-in’s first win in the Korean Series came up short.