The baseball world was shocked by the loss of Jose Lima this past week. One of the real characters in the game! While he was pitching for the Tigers I got the chance to shake his hand a couple of times and chatted a bit with him. He told me that he, like me, loved golfing. He talked about the courses in Texas and I told him a bit about the courses in Thailand. It would have been a real pleasure to golf with him I'm sure.
He was a flamboyant one-time MLB all star who had a 21-win season in '99 with the Astros. Here's some footage of him in a Tiger uniform. He was a fan favourite here as he was everywhere he pitched. It wasn't hard to see that he enjoyed a good time and although that may have contributed to his inconsistancy at times, he was great for the Tigers' team morale. I liked him in the short time he was here. I am not sure why he was released by the Tigers but I remember one time asking him why he was pulled in a game and he shook his head like I have so many times in wonder at Jo Bum Hyun's tendancy to yank starters who are pitching well and are not tired.
A candle that burns brightest always burns fastest. Farewell Jose.
May 25th - The Tigers travelled to Seoul to face the LG Twins. They started the series with workhorse Aquilino Lopez. He pitched 8 full innings giving up 12 hits and 5 runs. Despite the previous comment about Jo Bum Hyun, he seems to be leaving starters in a bit longer this season. That's a good thing! However this was yet another game that was probably lost via the sac bunt. In the 2nd inning Lee Jung Hwan got a leadoff single and Cha Il Mok was promptly squaring around for the sac. Pak Ki Nam lined out and then Lee Hyun Gon got an RBI double. It seemed to all watching like the bunt worked but the double would have scored Lee from first even if the hot-hitting Cha didn't get a productive out. And, of course, if he managed to reach safely the Tigers would have had another run and another out and who knows what would have happened? It came back to bite them later in the game.
In the 6th Choi Hee Seop led off with a walk and immediately got bunted to second. Lee grounded out and Cha struck out. Again, what might have happened if the bunter, who I think was Kim Sang Hoon, had been allowed to swing the bat?
The 7th inning included an even bigger coaching mistake. Pak Ki Nam led off with a walk and Lee Hyun Gon was NOT told to bunt behind him. What do you know - base hit! Next batter was Lee Yong Gyu and because HE wasn't sacrificing he got hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases. Here's where the brain fart occured. Jo decides to pinch hit for the fastest guy on the team, (and therefore the worst double-play candidate), Kim Weon Seop and put in a guy who ALWAYS looks very nervous at the plate, Choi Yong Gyu. Pull the veteran who's warm and already has a hit in the game and put in the nervous youngster, cold off the bench in a crucial bases-loaded situation. It may have appeared that he was pulling a lefty to put in a righty but the previous lefty got hit by a pitch and I don't put a lot of stock in that philosophy anyways. I bat right and hit better against right-handed pitchers and there are a LOT of guys like me. Anyway, we'll see that this probably wasn't what Jo was thinking. What he WAS thinking, nobody knows. If he wanted a righty he could have put in Na Ji Weon or even Hong Sae Weon, two guys who would not have been nervous and are FAR more likely to get hits or maybe even grand slams. Predictably Choi struck out and he looked so nervous he probably would have run to third had he hit the ball. Next batter An Chi Hong hit into a rally-squelching double play.
In the 8th Choi led off again with a single. Kim Sang Hoon flied out. I was happy not to see him bunting. Then Jo pulled the lefty Lee Jong Hwan to put in a righty against a right-handed pitcher. Amazingly Lee Yeong Su hit a home run that tied the game at 4. But it wasn't enough. LG managed to pull out the win. This is definitely another game the Tigers lost because of bad coaching. Final score: LG 5 Kia 4.
May 26th - This was the start of some very strange games for the Tigers. Yoon Suk Min was on the mound for what would prove to be the worst outing I've ever seen for him. He threw 45 pitches, got only 2 outs and gave up 6 hits, 3 walks and 8 runs! In his defence Lee Jong Beom had hit a solo homerun in top of the first inning and if Lee Yong Gyu hadn't been picked off at first Yoon would have started with a 2-0 lead! He's just not used to that! Also errors have plagued the defence during his starts and there was one bases-loaded mistake by Pak Ki Nam at third that caused 2 of the runs to score. But he just didn't have it on this day. Neither did Lee Dae Jin or Kwag Jung Cheol. Maybe it was a new shipment of corked bats for the LG Twins cuz they were hitting EVERYTHING! On the bright side... well, there was no bright side. Final score: LG 20 Kia I don't know, it doesn't matter. Next! (4)
May 27th - Yang Hyun Jong was hoping the Twins got all their hits out of their system the night before. He cruised right along until the 7th inning before giving up a couple of runs. He surrendered 7 hits, 4 walks and 2 runs. He got 5 strikeouts though. He improved his 3.98 ERA and became the league's leading pitcher with his 8th win. Lee Jong Beom, Choi Hee Seop - 3 hits, Cha Il Mok, Kim Weon Seop, Kim Sun Bin - 2 hits apiece. And relative unknown Lee Young Soo almost got his second homer in as many days but had to settle for an RBI double off the wall. He got 2 hits and 2 RBI's. Big Choi got 4 RBI's and 2 runs and Cha Il Mok got 3 RBI's and 3 runs. What a difference a day makes! A virtual reversal of the game the night before.
I hate to find anything wrong in a gorgeous game like this but I have to bring this up: in the 4th inning Kia was LEADING 5-0 and Kim Sun Bin got a leadoff double. The next batter was Lee Hyun Gon and he was told to bunt. I'm sorry folks but there is absolutely no defending incompetent coaching like this! Imagine if you're Lee Hyun Gon. He's a former batting title winner. And he's told to bunt FAR too often. In this case Lee Yong Gyu, the next batter, got a double that the fielder misplayed, which would have allowed Kim Sun Bin to crawl home. From SECOND! Lee Hyun Gon is like any baseball player in the world, he wants to hit. When the coach blatantly wastes a good hitting opportunity like this it sure doesn't make him want to play his heart out for the coach. And when the team sees him just WASTING outs like he does EVERY game, they get demoralized. In the same inning the Tigers went from 5-0 to 11-0 with the only out being the inexplicable sacrifice from 2nd to 3rd. That's 6 runs on one out, folks. When you sacrifice bunt, you sacrifice an out. How many of the outs Jo needlessly gives up would have been 6-run outs like this one? Nobody knows. That's the only reason Jo hasn't been fired, although he should have been by now. And I suppose the fact that despite his tactics the team STILL managed to win the championship last year.
Maybe a lot of the fans don't know it but the players do. Other than the overused relief pitching staff, do ANY of the Tigers actually LIKE playing for Jo Beom Hyun? I don't know how they could. It just hurts the team. Final Kia 15 LG 4
May 28th - Seo Jae Eung takes the mound with a 3-1 record and 3.69 ERA. After the huge scoring of the previous two games I said to my students I was watching the game with, "Now watch this game be 1-0." It just might have been if Seo was left in. We'll never know. He got into trouble a couple times but got out of it and had a great day. 5 hits, 2 walks, NO runs and 4 strikeouts. Then on comes Son Young Min. He allows 5 runs to score and that's pretty much the ball game. The Tigers made a good attempt to come back in the bottom of the inning but came up short. It's gotta be tough on a pitcher like Seo watching a really good effort destroyed in such a short time! Another thing that will drive your team morale into the dirt. Final Hanhwa 5 Kia 3
May 29th - Colon took the mound looking for his first win as a Tiger and hoping to lower his gaudy 5.23 ERA. The Eagles seemed to have something going in every inning but to his credit, Colon pitched out of trouble a lot in this game. He was helped by some officiating too. In the 4th there was an Eagle on 3rd and the batter hit a grounder to the 3rd baseman. The runner tried to run home but the throw beat him so he was in a run-down. It looked to me like the Kia catcher waited too long to throw the ball back to 3rd but the ump ruled that the runner had been tagged out before getting back. Lucky for Colon because his next pitch was a wild one that would have scored a run. He went 5 innings giving up 6 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 2 and hit two guys. It wasn't pretty but his only run came on a homer in the 5th that was thrown back a la Chicago's Wrigly Field at the insistance of the house full of foreigners. And despite some more awful pitching by Kim Hee Geol and Kwag Jeong Cheol, (who gave up 5 runs between them), Colon got his first win. An Chi Hong and Choi Hee Seop each went 2/4 with 3 RBI's in the game. Final: Kia 8 Hanhwa 6
May 30th - Even though it was a Sunday game and I knew it would be chock-a-block full I went to Moodeung Stadium and stood in line for an hour to get good seats for this one. It was Yoon Suk Min's chance to make ammends for his horrible 8-run inning in his previous appearance. And he wanted to lower his ERA that had ballooned to 3.86 because of his disastrous last start. He did all of the above going 8 innings striking out 8 allowing only 3 hits, 5 walks and 2 runs. He looked a bit shaky in the beginnning giving up a run but he's just more comfortable pitching while he's behind I guess. And the Tigers DID give him some runs in this one. The batters turned a modest 7 hits into 6 runs for the Tigers. That was plenty for Yoon. Kim Sun Bin went 2/3 with 2 RBI's but the hero of the day was Na Ji Weon who took a baseball off the noggin in the 2nd inning but kept playing. He was 1/2 with 2 RBI's and a run scored in the same inning he got beaned. What a stud! I was watching with my friends Guns and Amber and we all like Na Ji Weon even more now. Pretty hard for Amber who already wanted to marry him. Final: Kia 6 Hanhwa 2
So like Yoon Suk Min, the Tigers were .500 for the week. 4-2 sounds so much better than 3-3 doesn't it? With a little bit of smart coaching we could have been... But that's the joy of being a fan of the Terrible Tigers. See you next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment