Tigers manager sticks to same lineup in KBO postseason elimination game

By Yoo Jee-ho

DAEGU, Nov. 1 (Yonhap) -- For the first time in the ongoing South Korean baseball postseason series against the Samsung Lions, Kia Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho will use the exact same lineup for the second straight game Sunday.

The Tigers and the Lions are knotted at two games apiece in their best-of-five battle in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason, with the winner of Sunday's contest advancing to the Korean Series starting Tuesday against the KT Wiz in Suwon, just south of Seoul.

For Game 5 at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu, Lee put out the same batting order that produced 10 hits in a 4-2 victory in Game 4 two days prior.

The team's three biggest mashers each moved up a spot for that game in their home in Gwangju, with Kim Do-yeong batting second, Harold Castro batting third and Na Sung-bum hitting in the cleanup spot.

It was Lee's way of trying to spark the top of the lineup, with the table setters hitting in front of Kim, who led the regular season with 45 home runs and has hit four more in seven postseason games, struggling to get on base.

Kim leads the Tigers with seven hits in this series but has just one RBI, which came off his solo home run.

"We won Game 4 with this lineup and we just don't have guys that are swinging the bat well who can hit in front of Do-yeong," Lee said in his pregame media session. "This is not that big of a ballpark and we wanted to have our home run threats hitting higher up in the lineup. I felt it would give us the best chance to win."

After winning the first game of the series, the Tigers lost the next two games while struggling to handle fastballs up in the zone. With the automated ball-strike system making calls, not human umpires, pitches that could have been considered borderline at best in the past are getting called for strikes.

"We have to look for mistakes toward the middle of the zone," Lee said. "We feel we are prepared to handle those high pitches for this game. But it will ultimately come down to how many mistakes we will get and how we can best pounce on them.

This is the eighth postseason game for the Tigers this fall, after they had swept the LG Twins in three games in the previous series. But Lee said the Tigers, for all intents and purposes, have been playing high-stress playoff baseball since the beginning of October, as they were trying to grab the third seed and earn a bye to the first round of the postseason.

"The guys are gassed and they are showing some great competitive spirit," the manager said. "This could be the last game of the year for us. I am confident the players will give everything they have to win today. We are all packed up to go to Suwon after tonight. We are not thinking of going back to Gwangju."