Lee Seung-hyun failed again, but... It was the trigger for Diaz's final two-run shot
Oct 16, 2025
|
At first glance, it looks easy. It looks clear when the results are released and retrofitted.
But baseball is a sport of choice. The number of cases is too high until things happen. Unspeakable on-site circumstances also create several other variables.
Samsung Lions beat SSG Landers to advance to the playoffs. He took 10 years in Game 4, which ended the series.
Starting Hurado went down with a 2-0 lead left with nine strikeouts and no runs in seven innings.
You only have to save two innings. Kim Tae-hoon took the mound in the eighth inning. As soon as he came up, he complained of something inconvenient and walked the leadoff hitter. The balls fell out of the zone.
The bench, which caught the pitcher's anxiety, moved quickly.
The choice was right-hander Lee Seung-hyun. It was close to being defeated. Pinch hitter Oh Tae-gon allowed Park Sung-han to hit a timely double to tie the game with runners on the first and second bases with no outs. third base with no outs due to a mistake in throwing.
Young juniors have taken care of themselves. Bae Chan-seung struck out SSG's leading hitters, including Eredia Han Yu-sum, swinging, and Lee Ho-sung miraculously stopped the turnaround by handling Ko Myung-jun with an outfield fly ball.
Samsung eventually won 5-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning with Diaz's final two-run shot and Lee Jae-hyun's back-to-back home run with two outs and a runner on first base. It was eight times between heaven and hell.
|
In fact, Kim Tae-hoon's walk was wrong. Samsung manager Park Jin-man "I tried to put Bae Chan-seung in the top batting line if Kim Tae-hoon blocked the lower batting line, but when I hit the first batter, I changed it to Lee Seung-hyun because I thought he couldn't stabilize on the mound because of the big difference from John, but there was a mistake.", he admitted honestly. The original plan was that if veteran Kim Tae-hoon blocks a relatively weak low batting line, he will counterattack the strong high batting line with Bae Chan-seung.
As soon as Kim Tae-hoon came up, the choice of the moment when he tried to use Lee Seung-hyun's card, which was not scheduled, created a big crisis as a result. In fact, Lee Seung-hyun had a reason. I dreamed of playing again in Game 3.
Lee Seung-hyun pitched well in Game 3. After two outs in the seventh inning, he took the mound as the second pitcher after Won Tae-in, grounded out Lee Ji-young, struck out Park Sung-han with a 144km fastball, and neatly crossed the mound with a perfect pitch in the second ⅔ of the inning. After winning the third game, coach Park Jin-man explained the reason "Lee Seung-hyun was a Joker card that he put in because he was relatively strong against Lee Ji-young and Park Sung-han."
As soon as Kim Tae-hoon came up in Game 4, his control shook, and he dreamed of 'Lee Seung-hyun Again' because it was Lee Ji-young's Park Sung-han at-bat just like the previous day, but he failed.
On the SSG bench, instead of Lee Ji-young, who is weak against Lee Seung-hyun, he took out Oh Tae-gon's pinch-hitter card, which had two hits in two at-bats and a home run from Lee Seung-hyun, and Park Sung-han was not deceived by Lee Seung-hyun's fastball outside for two consecutive days.
|
SSG's pinch-hitters thrown at the catcher's at-bat eventually led to Diaz's winning home run.
As he pinch hit Lee Ji-young's at-bat, which saved starting catcher Cho Hyung-woo, SSG's only remaining catcher was rookie Lee Yul-ye, who had never played in this series. Lee Yoon-woon, who is in his third year, has to lead Lee Yul-ye, a catcher in his first year.
Lee Woon followed the formula 'Changes to the Big guns'. Three of the four balls thrown to Diaz were changeups in the 120km range.
But at this point, Diaz was slightly behind the timing on the fast ball.
In an interview just before Game 4, Diaz admitted it. It was because of the autumn cold brought by the rain.
When asked if he focused on the left-center hit in Game 3, Diaz shook his head and `I don't think that's right. I think I was a little late than my reaction because it was too cold while playing baseball yesterday. That's why I think that's what came out. I keep thinking about how to keep my body condition hot and maintain homeostasis. I think that's why the direction seemed to be like that." It means that he didn't push it, but he was pushed back because of the timing of the fast ball.
|
In the third at-bat in the sixth inning, he was slightly late for a 141km high slider, but he pushed toward left field and hit a timely hit. The first hit in nine at-bats after a timely hit in the fourth inning of the second game was a breaking ball.
In a desperate moment, the answer to Diaz's opponent's ball mix was a high fastball.
However, rookie Lee Yul-ye, who wore his first mask in his fall baseball career, was unable to lead the pitcher by catching even the swing timing of other batters. SSG coach Lee Soo-yong did not give a sign on Lee Yul-ye after the game. The pitcher catcher took care of it. I mainly followed what the pitcher did at the time, he said.
|
If Lee Ji-young, a veteran catcher, wore a mask at the end of the eighth inning without a substitute in the eighth inning, would Lee Woon have asked for a 120km changeup. There is a good chance that the result has been different.
It was Lee Seung-hyun who pulled Lee Ji-young out of the game.
Reporter Jung Hyun-seok hschung@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
