Lions to start homegrown ace in bid to clinch Korean Series title

DAEGU — The Samsung Lions will send their homegrown ace Won Tae-in to the mound in their first crack at clinching the 2026 Korean Series title Sunday.

The Lions lead the KT Wiz 3-1 in the best-of-seven battle, following a 10-5 win in Game 4 on Saturday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu. The fifth game, set for 2 p.m. Sunday in Daegu, will be the first elimination game of the series.

Won will make his first start for the Lions this postseason after making three relief appearances in the previous series against the Kia Tigers and another in Game 2 of the Korean Series on Wednesday.

Won, a career starter, was thrust into the bullpen role after the Lions’ All-Star closer Kim Jae-yoon suffered an upper body injury in October that knocked him out of the postseason.

In that game, Won gave up two hits and one unearned run in 1 2/3 innings.

With his pregame routine as a starting pitcher all thrown out of whack, Won admitted his body is not in optimal form.

“But my goal is to pitch as well as I can regardless of the situation,” Won said Saturday. “My focus will be on taking it one batter and one inning at a time.”

Won said he thought about taking the ball for Saturday’s game but opted for an additional day of rest when he felt a little sluggish after playing catch Friday afternoon.

“We would all love to finish the series here at home in Game 5,” Won said. “But if we end up needing Game 6 or even Game 7, I will be ready to pitch out of the bullpen.”

For the Wiz, Davis Daniel will make his second start of the series.

The American right-hander was the winning pitcher in Game 1, when he was charged with three earned runs on five hits in six innings and struck out seven.

He retired 13 straight batters in one stretch in the middle innings, before serving up a two-run home run to Koo Ja-wook in the seventh inning. One inherited runner scored, as Daniel’s final pitching line ended up looking worse than his performance.

This will be Daniel’s first appearance at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, which is the most hitter-friendly stadium in the Korea Baseball Organization that yields plenty of home runs. Daniel, who allowed only two home runs in 55 innings in the regular season, said he will try to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible.

Daniel had a higher flyball rate than groundball rate in the regular season but if his changeup and sweeper work as well as they did in Game 1, the Lions hitters will have a tough time getting their barrels on those pitches.

“I feel like the guys that have been able to keep the ball on the ground have had a lot of success,” he said prior to Saturday’s Game 4. “I have pitched at some serious altitude in Salt Lake City and some other places. So it is not foreign to me to play in a small park, that’s for sure.”

As for pitching in November, Daniel said, “You have trained your whole life for moments like this. At the end of the day, once you get out there, time of the year doesn’t really matter. This is what you prepare your body for.”