Young pitchers help put Lions on brink of Korean Series title

DAEGU — At the tender age of 19, Samsung Lions starter Jang Chan-hee helped put his team on the verge of their first Korean Series title in a dozen years Saturday with a better-than-expected performance.

Jang held the KT Wiz to a run on two hits in four rock solid innings, as the Lions prevailed 10-5 in Game 4 of the Korean Series at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The Lions lead the best-of-seven series 3-1, and can clinch the championship in Game 5 scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday in Daegu.

At 19 years, one month and two days old, became the second youngest pitcher to start a Korean Series game.

Before the game, Lions manager Park Jin-man said he hoped Jang would pitch with the level of energy and fearlessness that he had shown during the regular season.

Jang had a rocky first inning, though, as he surrendered a solo home run to Jang Jin-hyuk on just his ninth pitch of the game. He walked the next batter but escaped the inning with no further damage.

Jang’s teammates then staked him to a 6-1 lead, as they batted around and roughed up starter Logan Allen to the tune of four hits and three walks.

After watching his lineup put up a crooked number on the board, Jang found his groove on the mound.

He got three quick outs in the second inning and also went three-up, three-down in the third. With one out in the fourth, Jang walked Sam Hilliard and gave up a single to Kim Hyun-soo, but got the next two outs on an infield pop fly and a routine flyout to center.

Though Jang had only thrown 63 pitches at that point, the Lions decided to reach into the bullpen to begin the fifth.

That move nearly cost the Lions. They ended up needing three pitchers to get through that frame, as the Wiz scored three times without even a hit.

Satoshi Miyamori loaded the bases with a single and two walks. Bae Chan-seung came out but gave up a run on a groundout. He then walked three straight batters, with the latter two free passes pushing in two runs for the Wiz to make it a 7-4 game.

That is when Lee Jae-hee was summoned to clean up the mess. Lee got the job done by striking out Kim Sang-su and retiring Heo Kyoung-min on an infield pop fly — after offering them seven straight four-seam fastballs.

Lee, 25, then worked two perfect innings while recording three strikeouts, leaning on his fastball-slider combination to keep the Wiz batters at bay.

The game could have spun out of control without Lee’s shutdown work out of the bullpen. His effort gave the Lions lineup a chance to pull ahead, with Park Seung-kyu delivering a two-run double in the bottom fifth and Koo Ja-wook making it a 10-4 game with a run-scoring double in the bottom seventh.

Kim Tae-hoon and Lee Seung-min covered the eighth and the ninth inning for the win but Lee Jae-hee was clearly the star of the bullpen.

He threw 19 fastballs, nine sliders and five forkballs, and 25 of his 33 pitches were strikes.