Koo Dae-Sung joins 1,000 strikeouts club

The ace pitchers of the Korean baseball team, who combined to help earn Korea the first medal in the sport in the Sydney Olympics, clashed for the honor of their respective teams at Daejeon Ballpark, Tuesday.

Fresh from the Olympics, the Dream Team's ace lefthander, Koo Dae-Sung of the Hanwha Eagles and Lim Sun-Dong of the Hyundai Unicorns engaged in a fierce contest of pride.

It was the 18th game between the two rivals of the 2000 Korean Pro Baseball League.

The match featured the duel between lefthander Koo and right-hander Lim and also between the unofficial leader in ERA (Koo) and official frontrunner (Lim).

Lim was leading in the ERA contest at 3.12, while Koo was the unofficial leader at 2.28 because he has yet to pitch regulation innings, lacking 18 and two-thirds innings.

Koo struck out nine for a career total of 1,000 strikeouts to become the 14th pitcher to set the record.

Koo's Hanwha took down Hyundai 5-1, putting an end to its seven-game losing streak.

The Haitai Tigers stopped home team LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul 2-0. The Tigers got two runs at the bottom of eighth inning with one hit, three walks and two sacrifices. The winning run came from a walk with the bases loaded.

LG ended a 10-game winning streak, shut out with only four scattered hits.

The SK Wyverns bagged a 3-1 win over the Samsung Lions, who are struggling to secure a playoff berth at Samsung's home of Daegu.

In Sajik Stadium in Busan, the Lotte Giants blanked the Doosan Bears 3-0, thanks to its cleanup trio's power, for its fourth consecutive win.

Jeon Chang jeon@donga.com