One foreign pitcher will look to send his team to the next round in the South Korean baseball postseason this week, while another foreign-born hurler will try to keep his club alive.
The Kia Tigers will take a 2-0 lead over the LG Twins in their best-of-five series in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason when the battle resumes at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
The Tigers, having won the first two games at home in the southwestern city of Gwangju over the weekend, will have Japanese right-hander Keisho Shirakawa on the hill Tuesday.
The Twins, the defending Korean Series champions, will turn to Venezuelan right-hander Carlos Carrasco for the win-or-go-home game.
Both are pitching in their first KBO postseason. Carrasco got his first game out of the way last Wednesday in the wild card contest against the Doosan Bears, throwing six innings of one-run ball in a 4-1 victory.
Carrasco met the Tigers once during the regular season. On Oct. 3, he allowed three runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. Park Jae-hyun, who will either bat leadoff or in the No. 2 spot in the lineup, had two hits against Carrasco in that game.
Shirakawa went 4-5 with a 4.75 ERA in 18 regular-season games this year. He struggled badly against the Twins, allowing eight runs on 12 hits, including four home runs, in only 9 1/3 innings.
Austin Dean, who has gone only 1-for-7 in this series, homered twice off Shirakawa during the regular season. Park Dong-won and Lee Jae-won also went deep against the Japanese pitcher.
If the Twins lose Tuesday, Game 3 will end up being the last game played at Jamsil. Built in 1982, the stadium will be demolished after this season to make room for a new dome.
The two teams have the same number of hits so far at 16 each, but the Tigers have been more opportunistic with runners aboard. They are batting a robust .455/.529/.727 with men in scoring position, while the Twins have managed only a .250/.308/.250 line in the same situation.
Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho has used four relievers so far this series, but they have only had to cover five innings as starters James Naile and Adam Oller tossed seven and six innings, respectively. Closer Jeon Sang-hyun has been the workhorse with consecutive four-out saves.
Lee's counterpart, Youm Kyoung-youb, has had to lean on eight relievers to eat up 10 2/3 innings, especially with Game 2 starter Im Chan-kyu retiring just one batter in his first-inning meltdown. (Yonhap)
