(LEAD) Lions ace Jurado tames Tigers for 1st career KBO postseason win

By Yoo Jee-ho

DAEGU, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- For all of his regular-season accomplishments in South Korea over the past four years, Samsung Lions starter Ariel Jurado had not been as successful in postseason play until Tuesday night.

The Panamanian workhorse finally earned his first postseason win in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on Tuesday, as he held the Kia Tigers to two runs on five hits in 6 2/3 frames in the Lions' 8-3 victory at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu.

With this convincing win, the Lions pulled even in their best-of-five series at one game apiece.

Jurado has put up a 3.01 ERA in 114 starts since 2023 while logging 721 1/3 innings over that span. In his four previous postseason outings, though, Jurado had a 0-3 record with a 4.29 ERA, with 10 earned runs in 21 innings.

Jurado has never been an overpowering pitcher, and his tendency to pitch to contact backfired on him at times in postseason play.

On Tuesday night, though, Jurado's plan worked just fine.

After allowing just one base runner in the first two innings, Jurado gave up the game's first run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the third inning.

But the Lions backed him up with a four-spot in the bottom of the third, highlighted by Lewin Diaz's two-run home run.

Jurado found his groove from there.

He retired the next 10 straight batters in one effective stretch. In the fourth, Jurado needed just 12 pitches to get his three outs. He got a groundout, a lineout and a flyout in the fifth. And it was another 12-pitch inning in the sixth for Jurado.

The Lions added a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth. With a 7-1 cushion, Jurado came back out for the seventh inning.

He struggled with his control a bit in that inning, giving up a walk and a single before a wild pitch with two outs scored the Tigers' second run.

Just before the wild pitch, Lions pitching coach Choi Yil-yeon came out for a mound visit. Thinking Choi was coming out to give him the hook, Jurado raised his right index finger toward the dugout, indicating he wanted to get one more out.

Jurado didn't do it, but he did plenty else to earn his first postseason victory and get the Lions back into this series.

"This was such an important game for us, and everyone was locked in today, trying to win this one," Jurado said. "I had no idea this was my first postseason victory. I prepared really hard for this game, and I am really happy with how it played out."

Jurado, who offered six different types of pitches, said he tried to attack the upper part of the zone.

"I felt I could keep the hitters off balance by pitching to the top of the zone," he said. "And I think my changeup complemented those high pitches really well."

As for his seventh-inning mound conference, Jurado said: "I just told the coach I could keep going. Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the inning. I am thankful for the bullpen for holding down the fort later."