Lions Swept Two Days In a Row Thanks to Wild Pitches In the Ninth

Are they possessed by some devil or something?

A baseball team, the Samsung Lions, has had extremely weird experiences two days in a row.

They lost against Doosan Bears in Jamsil stadium on June 15 and 16. Both games were lost after two outs in the bottom of ninth inning. If there were game-ending hits, it would be much less bitter. But the Lions received a greater shock because they lost two games in a row on two wild pitches.

In the game on June 15, it was Lions’ closer Lim Chang-yong who caused the accident. The game came to the bottom of ninth inning in a 6-6 tie. Lim seemed to deal with a difficult problem, no outs with the bases full, by inducing a ground out and a strike out. However, his first pitch to the Doosan Bears’ last batter, Yoo Jae-woong, hit him in the ribs. This became a game-ending forcing in of a run with a hit by a pitch. This is a very rare occurrence, the first this season and the twelfth time overall in the history of Korean baseball.

A similar situation made Lions feel mortified after the game on June 16. Lions’ closer Kwon O-joon pitched wild to Bears’ batter Hong Won-ki. It was in the bottom of ninth inning with two outs and both teams locked in a 3-3 tie. This is the first game-ending wild pitch of the season and sixteenth in league history. Samsung head coach Kim Eung-ryong and other Lions players seemed to get carried away at the moment.

Speaking of rare records, there are many others in professional baseball. Some of them are much more rare.

The most curious one is a game-ending interference call. In a game featuring the Samsung Lions versus the Hanhwa Eagles on June 27 1997, Eagles’ catcher Kang In-kwon (currently on the Doosan Bears) interfered with Lions’ batter Jung Kyung-bae (currently on the SK Wyverns). That made Kang famous for his one and only record, a game-ending interference call.

Game-ending balks were recorded only four times in league history. Game-ending passed balls are also rare, with the record being five times. The first game-ending passed ball was recorded by OB (now Doosan) Bears’ catcher Cho Bum-hyun (current SK Wyvern head coach) in the game against the Haitai Tigers in 1987. He missed Kim Jin-wook’s pitch when Song Il-sub was in the batter’s box in the bottom of eleventh inning in a 0-0 tie.

Samsung Lions’ catcher Jin Gap-yong has recorded a game-ending passed ball twice out of total five times in the history of the league.

A game-winning hit is the most thrilling for batters. If it was a homer, perfect.

The most impressive game-winning homer was that of the opening game of the 1982 season, which took place on March 27 in Dongdaemoon stadium. The game was the MBC Blue Dragons versus Samsung Lions. Lee Jong-do of MBC ended the game with a game-winning homer in the bottom of tenth inning to break a 7-7 tie.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com