After posting the best record in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular season, the Kia Tigers earned a bye to the Korean Series and a layoff of about three weeks.
It is a setup unique to the KBO, where the top seed gets to rest and prepare for the championship round while lower seeds duke it out in high-intensity postseason games to qualify for the Korean Series.
And with the opening game of the best-of-seven round against the Samsung Lions finally here Monday, Tigers players said they couldn’t wait to get going.
“Honestly, I am not nervous at all. I am just excited to play,” said Tigers third baseman Kim Do-yeong, the leading regular-season MVP candidate, during his pregame scrum at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul. “I think this will be the biggest game of my life.”
Kim, 21, is surrounded by veterans with championship rings, but he said he had not yet sought out their advice.
“Since this is my first time, I don’t know what kind of emotions I will go through
,” Kim said. “Once I play a couple of games, then I will go ask some of the older guys if I need any help. For now, I want to see for myself what it’s like.”
The one area he asked for help was defense. Kim had a productive year at the plate, with 38 home runs, 109 RBIs and a league-record 143 runs scored, but he committed a league-worst 30 errors at third base.
Kim said veteran shortstop Park Chan-ho told him not to be intimidated on the field.
“He said I should not be afraid of making errors,” Kim said. “I will try to stick to fundamentals.”
While Kim will be playing in his first Korean Series, designated hitter Choi Hyoung-woo will be playing in his eighth.
Seven of them came as a member of the Lions from 2010 to 2015, during which Choi helped them to four titles. He then won the 2017 title as a Tiger.
“It feels strange to be playing in the Korean Series against the Lions,” Choi said. “And I expected them to be here. They were the second-best team in the regular season.”
Choi, 40, said he would like
nothing more than a short series, and a four-game sweep in his team’s favor will do the trick.
“They have a lot of young players over there, and we don’t want to give them any chance to catch fire early and ride that momentum,” Choi said. “And it’s going to start today. We’ll try to get the win right out of the gate.”
After the Tigers host the first two games, the series will shift to Daegu Samsung Lions Park for two more games. It’s the most hitter-friendly park in the KBO, and in two games of the previous round against the LG Twins, the Lions launched eight homers and scored 20 runs there.
The Lions had the most regular-season homers with 185 in 144 games, and the Tigers ranked third with 163.
“I think the series will come down to offense. We both have great hitters,” Choi said. “Obviously, they hit a lot of homers there, but we aren’t that far behind. We won’t worry about how many home runs they will hit because we know we will have our share of home runs.”
Catcher Kim Tae-gun agreed that the Tigers s
hould be able to match the Lions power for power. He has also told his pitchers that they should keep things simple and not be afraid of serving up long balls.
“We could have some high-scoring games in Daegu. But if we try too hard not to give up home runs, it can backfire on us,” Kim said. “I think we can live with giving up solo home runs. We just have to try to limit the damage to a minimum.”
Kim, who has 27 postseason games under his belt, said he told his younger teammates to keep things simple.
“I told them not to worry too much because it won’t change anything,” Kim said. “I said they should just go make their pitches. And if they don’t think they’re ready on the mound, then they should let me know so we can bring in someone else.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency