Gwangju: Autumn rain dampened the festive mood before and during the opening game of the South Korean baseball championship series in the southern city of Gwangju on Monday. The top seed Kia Tigers hosted No. 2 seed Samsung Lions in Game 1 of the Korean Series at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul.
According to Yonhap News Agency, about half an hour before the scheduled 6:30 p.m. start, rain began to fall, prompting the grounds crew to put the tarp on the infield. Amid intermittent showers, groundskeepers kept rolling and unrolling the tarp, drawing cheers from a sellout crowd of 19,300 every time they removed the cover. Because this was the first game of the championship round, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) had planned a pregame ceremony, including an introduction for all players. With the start delayed by inclement weather, the KBO decided to introduce only those in the starting lineups.
Despite the abbreviated ceremony, the first pitch was thrown at 7:36 p.m. Ra
in stopped momentarily, only to start again during the first inning. It picked up during the bottom of the fourth. Few fans, if any, even left their seats. Many were draped in plastic raincoats, while others used their team towels as cover.
In less than ideal conditions, the two starting pitchers, James Naile for the Tigers and Won Tae-in for the Lions, dazzled on the mound. They each threw 66 pitches and faced 19 batters through five shutout innings. Pitching for the first time since taking a line drive to the face on Aug. 24, Naile worked out of multiple jams with the sweeper. He struck out three batters in the fourth inning with his signature pitch.
Won induced soft contact after soft contact with his mix of fastballs and changeups, and held the Tigers to just two hits through five innings. With two outs in the second, Won dodged a bullet when Kim Sun-bin hit a towering fly off the top of the left field wall for a triple. Thinking the ball had gone out, Kim even high-fived his first base coach, Lee Hyun-
gon, as he rounded the bases. Kim managed to reach third base after the ball popped back into the outfield grass. The Tigers asked for a video review, but replays clearly showed the ball hadn’t left the park.
Won then retired Choi Won-jun on a harmless fly to left. In the third inning, Won faced Socrates Brito with two outs and a runner at third, and got the slugger to pop out to second. Won issued two walks in the fourth inning but made a deft defensive play to get himself out of trouble. Choi hit a grounder back to Won, and after the ball popped out of his glove, Won grabbed it before it hit the ground and tossed it to first for the final out. Won got three quick outs in the fifth with two groundouts and a flyout on just eight pitches.
Naile, the regular-season ERA champion, blinked first by allowing a solo home run to Kim Hun-gon to begin the top of the sixth inning. Naile got the hook after walking the next batter, Lewin Diaz. Reliever Jang Hyun-sik walked the first batter he faced, Kang Min-ho, and the
game went into a rain delay after Jang threw a ball to Kim Young-woong. Some 40 minutes later, the umpiring crew decided to suspend the game, the first such occurrence in KBO postseason history. The game is scheduled to resume at 4 p.m. Tuesday from the point of termination.