Veterans Ruling Baseball Postseason

Few expected Hanwha, which lost the first game of the best-of-five Korea Baseball Organization playoffs, would announce Jeong Min-cheol (34) as their starter for the second game, since their ace was supposedly Ryu Hyun-jin (19), who won the triple crown this season.

With the sole exception of Hyundai in 1996, there hasn’t been any other team that won the playoffs after losing two games first, statistically demonstrating the importance of Game Two to Hanwha. At first sight, it seemed unreasonable to let Jeong (7-13, ERA: 3.93) start, who has been only the team’s fourth in winnings after Ryu Hyun-jin (18-6), Moon Dong-hwan (16-9), and Song Jin-woo (8-8). On October 14 in Suwon, however, it turned out after the second match against Hyundai that they have played the exact card.

“Tactics-oriented baseball,” a trademark of Hyundai’s manager Kim Jae-bak, was almost completely deterred as runners hardly got on bases, hence leaving scarce room for tactics. Jeong was chosen as the MVP for the game as he earned only five hits and one run against 20 batters during 5 1/3 innings. On the first pitches, Jeong took the hitters off guard colorfully mixing fastballs around 145km/h with slow curves around 100km/h and sliders around 125km/h.

Trailing by 0-4 in the sixth inning, Hyundai caught up with Hanwha up to 3-4 by concentrating their fire on the relief Gwon Jun-hun who took the mound since one out in that inning with a runner on the first base. However, the specialist closer Koo Dae-sung (38), who started relieving in the seventh inning, took control of the situation and concluded the game. He didn’t even allow a single hit.

The postseason is a stage for veterans. Just as Ryu performed poorly in the second game of the semi-playoffs against Kia, offering them a homer with the bases loaded, Hyundai’s young gun Jang Won-sam (23), who recorded the second most wins in his team during the pennant race (12-10), started Game Two of the playoffs, only to be knocked out in the third inning after offering Hanwha plenty of hits, including a two-run homer by Kim Tae-kyun.

The veteran fielders are also playing outstanding baseball. In the first game against Hanwha, Jeon Jun-ho (37) stole a base and successfully carried out the hit and run strategy, which became the launch pad for the team’s big number of runs that night. Hyundai’s catcher Kim Dong-soo is also playing vigorously, producing four hits in seven at bats during the first two playoff games. As for Hanwha as well, players in their thirties, such as Kim Min-jae (33) and Shin Kyung-hyun (31), who had two hits respectively in Game Two, and Cho Won-woo (35) who made the game-winning RBI in the sixth inning, are performing well.

kimsk@donga.com