In a crucial South Korean baseball championship game with his club’s title hopes hanging in the balance, Kiwoom Heroes left-hander Lee Seung-ho delivered the best postseason outing of his career.
It didn’t matter that Lee didn’t throw enough innings to qualify for a win on Saturday, as the Heroes defeated the SSG Landers 6-3 to pull even in the Korean Series at two games apiece. By holding the opponents to a run on a bloop single in four innings, Lee exceeded all expectations — even those placed on him by his own skipper.

Down 2-1 after three games of the best-of-seven series, the Heroes didn’t have a full-time starter available for Game 4. Game 1 starter An Woo-jin would have been in line for this game. But he was pulled early in the opener with a blister in his right hand and the finger hadn’t healed by Saturday.
Kiwoom manager Hong Won-ki had mapped out a bullpen day and Lee was picked for the opener duty because he has the most experience starting games among the current group of relievers.
In his pregame media scrum, Hong said he wasn’t expecting much from Lee and he was hoping for three innings from the left-hander at most.
Lee provided one more inning than that.
He got off on the wrong foot in the first inning, walking the leadoff man Choo Shin-soo and throwing a wild pitch to let him take second base. Two batters later, Choi Jeong cashed in Choo with a bloop single to shallow right field.
But that ended up being the only hit Lee allowed Saturday. He sat down the next eight batters in a row. After walking Choi to open the fourth, Lee got the next three outs on just six pitches.
Lee’s day was done after that. He threw a season-high 48 pitches, and the four innings pitched were also the most this year for the left-hander.
Lee said he had been such a nervous wreck Friday that he didn’t even eat dinner. It was only after he got up Saturday morning that he regained his composure.
“I just wanted to keep throwing strikes, and I got a lot of help from my defense,” Lee said. “I wasn’t thinking about the number of pitches or how many innings I was going to throw. I was focusing on retiring one batter at a time.”
Lee, 23, began his career as a reliever in 2018 but pitched in the rotation full time in 2019 and 2020. He was sent back to the bullpen for the 2021 season, though he did make three starts that year.
In 2022, he made 53 relief appearances but no start during the regular season. Lee had not thrown more than 50 pitches in a game since August last year. In the postseason, this was Lee’s first start since October 2019 during the Korean Series.
Lee carried a 4.22 ERA in 10 career postseason outings prior to Saturday, with a no win-loss record.
He did not get a win Saturday, either, but he essentially saved the Heroes’ season with this performance.
One more inning and Lee would have been in line for a win, but Lee said he put his team goal ahead of his personal stats.
“Any pitcher would have wanted to go at least five innings in that situation. But this wasn’t just any regular season game,” Lee said. “I knew we had some great pitchers behind me. So I was not disappointed at all that I was done after four innings. I trusted the guys in the bullpen.”
Lee said he had looked back on his previous Korean Series start from three years ago. The Heroes got swept by the Doosan Bears that year, but he thinks things will be different this time.
“We all have one thing in mind: to win a championship,” Lee said. “I think we just might get it done this time.”
Lee’s teammates backed that surprising start with an offensive outburst, highlighted by a five-run third inning. Shortstop Shin Jun-woo, in his first postseason start since Oct. 19, went 2-for-3 with two RBIs from the No. 8 spot.
Shin began the postseason as the starting shortstop but was replaced by Kim Whee-jip after making a series of errors. He tied a postseason record by committing three errors against the KT Wiz on Oct. 19.
But after Kim made his share of blunders in recent games, Shin drew back into the starting lineup and capitalized on his opportunity.
Shin said, regardless of how he might have looked to others, he never lost any confidence in himself.
“Errors are bound to happen. I always believed that I’d get my opportunity as long as I stay prepared,” Shin said. “That opportunity came today and I tried hard to make the most of it.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency