Naile strengthens stellar postseason resume in Tigers' victory

By Yoo Jee-ho

GWANGJU, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- Two years after helping the Kia Tigers win the Korean Series title with two strong outings, right-hander James Naile marked his return to the South Korean baseball postseason with a stellar performance Saturday.

Naile held the LG Twins to a run on four hits over seven innings, as the Tigers emerged with a 5-1 victory in the opening game of the best-of-five first round in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason.

Before a sellout crowd of 18,900 at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in the southwestern city of Gwangju, Naile struck out six batters -- five of them using his bread-and-butter pitch, the sweeper.

Nailed started the game with two strikeouts in the first inning. He got two quick outs in the second but then surrendered a solo home run to Song Chan-eui after leaving a sweeper over the heart of the plate.

The Tigers backed up Naile with a couple of long balls of their own -- Harold Castro's game-tying solo shot in the bottom second and Kim Do-yeong's go-ahead solo homer in the bottom fourth. And that proved enough run support for Naile.

Naile caught a break in the third inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Park Dong-won, but after Gu Bon-hyeok fanned on a bunt attempt, Park got thrown in a rundown between first and second.

After Gu grounded out, Naile allowed two straight two-out singles before getting the dangerous Austin Dean to pop out to shortstop.

Naile ran into his biggest trouble in the sixth, when he gave up a leadoff double and then a walk to put two men aboard, with the meat of the order coming up.

Naile threw four straight sweepers at cleanup Moon Jeong-bin, who whiffed on the fourth one for a strikeout. Naile then induced a 4-6-3 double play ball off Moon Bo-gyeong's bat.

Naile's day was done after a clean seventh inning, and three relievers took care of the rest.

In the 2024 Korean Series, Naile made two starts against the Samsung Lions, allowing just three earned runs in 10 2/3 innings for a 2.53 ERA and striking out 13 batters. Following Saturday's game, Naile's career postseason ERA now stands at 2.04.