The games were rained out May 18th. It was the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Riots or massacre or uprising or whatever you choose to call the incidents, and I went downtown in the rain to have a beer with friends. Or to have beers with a friend. Either was fine. The taxi couldn't stop where I wanted because the streets were blocked off for an "Oh Il Pal" memorial of sorts. They had a stage set up with some bands playing and people dancing. There were memorial paintings and such. And there were plastic wrapped reporters talking into mini walkie-talkie-looking mikes with red lights on them. As I walked by one I pulled a crazy face and threw up a deuce. I forgot to say hi to Mom though. Don't know if I made it onto TV or not. The higher paid reporters were in a glass box on a stage with a panel of dignitaries waxing historical and the concert was their backdrop. The celebrations really brought the house down lemme tell you!
May 19th - This was a painful game for me to watch! If you missed the game but follow this blog, you can guess what happened. Yoon Suk Min was the starting pitcher. The game was in Koonsan but it was considered a home game for the Tigers. I didn't go because I would have had to stay overnight in Koonsan. Yoon pitched very well giving up only 3 hits over 8 innings. This is a very LONG appearance. Two in a row now for Yoon. Maybe coach Jo is starting to trust him. He only gave up one walk but struck out 5. And he had a LOT batters with 2 strikes on them. One guy hit the ball solid and got a home run but when Yoon was pulled after the 8th he had a 2-1 lead. He had only thrown 100 pitches and as usual there were no real signs that he couldn't continue dominating. But I guess Jo was getting bored on the bench. In his defence, I too was getting bored watching the Tiger batters give their usual support to Yoon: a grand total of 4 hits. I don't know how Choi Hee Seop and Cha Il Mok go yard back to back in the 2nd inning and for the rest of the game the whole team manages just 2 hits. The opposing pitcher, Song Seung Joon is pretty good but he's only 3-3 this year. He's not Nolan Ryan. The Yoon Suk Min curse I guess.
That was it. That was all. Shoulda been a boring 4th win for Yoon. But Jo spiced it up by bringing in Yoo Dong Hoon. He's a pretty dependable closer but he stunk the place out on this night. First batter - double. Next batter - single but the drawn in outfielder, Kim Weon Seop, bobbled the ball and allowed the runner to score. Voila! Tie game! 2-2. Another fine Yoon Suk Min performance wasted. Next batter bunts the guy from second to 3rd. Then Jo shakes things up a bit more by walking Lee Dae Ho intentionally and giving an intentional/unintentional four-pitch walk to Garcia thereby leaving no margin of error for Yoo Dong Hoon because the bases were loaded. Have I asked this question before: Is there any bullpen that hits more batters than the Tiger bullpen? Yoo Dong Hoon hit a batter with the bases loaded and that made the final score: Lotte 3 Kia 2
May 20th - Seo Jae Eung got the start. He's been great this year and has a 3-0 record but could be 5-0. He went 5 1/3 giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and striking out 4. Not too shabby. Somehow 5 runs were scored on him! You don't suppose it had anything to do with being replaced by Kim Hee Geol, who had a bazillion ERA on the night because he didn't get an out, do you? The Tigers had a great rally in the 7th that went 2B, 2B, 1B, 2B, BB, 1B but ended abruptly on a bases loaded double play hit into by Lee Yong Gyu. The worst part was in that same at bat he spanked a ball out of the park but it was a bit foul. However, some more bad pitching, this time by Jo Tae Soo, got Lotte the win. An Chi Hong went 3/3, Choi Yong Gyu was 2/2 pinch hitting, and there was yet another good performance by Park Gyung Tae pitching 1 1/3 and giving up no hits. But the final was Lotte 9 Kia 4
May 21st - The Nexen Heroes came to town. This KBO's second most winning pitcher Yang Hyun Jong took the mound for the Tigers in this one. He pitched great! A full 7 innings of 4-hit ball with 3 walks and 6 K's. He gave up 3 runs in there but the Tigers' gave him 7 hits and 5 runs worth of support.
I hated watching this game because it started like so many with the 1st batter of the 1st inning, Lee Yong Gyu, getting a hit and the next batter sacrifice bunting. Obviously Jo decided to play chicken ball on the night. In the 3rd again Lee Yong Gyu got on and the next batter sac bunted. I was happy to see the Heroes rather unheroic booting of the bunt and the ensuing An Chi Hong 2 RBI single and Choi Hee Seop 2-run Homer, BUT, this is just gonna make Jo think that bunting is working! Even worse, in the 6th Kim Sang Hoon was walked and the next guy sac bunted, then Park Ki Nam got an RBI double. The sac bunt DID work! Now we'll NEVER see the end of it! Yang got his seventh win, Lopez, (for some reason), got a save, but none of it was because of the bunting. Final score Kia 5 Nexen 3
May 22nd - The game was rained out. I was visiting friends so I didn't mind the game being cancelled. I couldn't go anyway.
May 23rd - I was on the train home when this game began. Colon got the start and threw 59 pitches in the first two innings. He gave up 3 hits, 5 walks and 3 runs. I was nearing Gwangju Station while this was happening. Then another pretty good appearance by oldster Lee Dae Jin. That's a treat. But the pitching wasn't the story. I was walking home from the train station with a heavy backpack full of groceries and clothes from the weekend and it was a bit bofore 7 pm. I reckoned it would be about the 6th inning so I decided not to go into Moodeung Stadium to catch the end of the game. What a mistake! As it turns out because of the marathon pitching session by Colon, it was only the 5th. And WHAT A 5th!
With the score 3-3, Choi Hee Seop leads off the festivities with a 1-out walk. Next Kim Sang Hoon worked a walk. Then Cha Il Mok did something he's probably never done: he got a base hit, Choi was wisely waved home and the throw to home wasn't in time. Cha chugged his way to second. Then the catcher tried to throw Kim out at 3rd but the throw sailed into deep left field, which had been vacated by the fielder covering Cha's hit up the middle. Cha continued his odyssey to 3rd behind the scoring Kim Sang Hoon. Two catchers running the bases like jackrabbits! Then Cha made the turn for home. He made an ugly slide and was SAFE! An error-assisted inside the park home run that plated, (aside from pitchers and Na Ji Weon), probably the three biggest and slowest guys on the team! SEE? You don't need to be Ricky Henderson to run the bases aggressively. This would have been worth the price of admission all by itself. But there was more to come! Pak Ki Nam, who by the way is ON FIRE, hit a solo homer. 7-3 Tigers.
In the 7th inning there were two walks to start off. No sac bunt resulted in a walk. By this time I was home and watching the game on my computer. I was talking to myself when I saw the third batter, Cha Il Mok square around to bunt the runners from 1st and 2nd to 2nd and 3rd. But then, the unthinkable! He pulls back and gets a base hit into right field! Bases loaded without a sacrifice! Then Park Ki Nam 2 RBI's with a single; Kim Weon Seop 2 RBI's with a double; then Lee Yong Gyu and Lee Hyun Gon follow up with RBI singles. SEE? This would have bee sacrificed if they had sacrificed. I didn't see this full game but it looked completely different from the chicken ball in the previous game. Why oh why can't we just stick with this kind of baseball? Anyway, the final score was Kia 13 Nexen 3
Again I'm confused by the coaching. Very inconsistant. But we're back to .500 and on a two-game winning streak. Cautious optimism.
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