Overcoming Matsuzaka

After four days of waiting, Lee Seung-yup faced Matsuzaka struck out in the early innings in a match up of third and fourth place teams. But in a tight 8th inning, with both sides scoreless, Lee hit a final double, scored and drove in 2 runs to give Korea a victory and the bronze medal.

Their third square off took place in a exhibition match on the 14th of this month. On that day, Matsuzaka humiliated Lee with 2 consecutive strikeouts.

Matsuzaka induced Lee to swing in the air with a fabulous combination of pitches and outside throws which surprised Lee. The second strike out was a 136km cut pitch.

Lee evaluated Matsuzaka by saying "Matsuzaka has improved a lot compared to four years ago."

In the current situation, Lee is never ahead of Matsuzaka in head to head competition. They have faced each other 10 times so far. Lee has hit a homer driving in 2 runs, and a double, but has also struck out seven times and is hitting a poor .200 against him.

For this reason, the opening match on the 27th is expected to be fate-deciding contest of might between the two. The Japanese league schedules 27 matches for each team, so Lee and Matsuzaka will meet at least five or six more times. Besides, Lee has yet to adapt fully to the Japanese league and Matsuzaka still stands as the "Marlin Killer" with 3 wins in 4 matches against Lotte last year.

Lee arrived on site on the 26th and prepared for the decisive battle. Cable TV channel OSB will broadcast all of this season’s Lotte games live.

Hwan Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com