Speed of Kia Versus Power of SK

The start for the last battle for the Korean Series ticket has begun.

On October 9 in Gwangju, the playoffs between Kia and SK will begin. Including the time when it was Haetae, for Kia which is going for its tenth victory, the most ever in it’s history, the playoffs is the stage to wipe out the stain of a former defeat to LG. SK, which initially entered the post season after creating their team in 2000, reveals their desire to go to Korean series, taking opportunity of this.

The manager of SK, Cho Bum-hyun said, “We defeated Samsung, but Kia, which is a good running team, is more challenging to us than Samsung.” The manager of Kia, Kim Sung-han questioned this strategy saying, “I want to see the brain of Cho Bum-hyun”

In the regular season, SK finished slightly ahead of Kia with a record of 10 wins and nine defeats. However, this record has nothing to do with the result of playoff, which is a short series.

Kia’s strength is the starting pitching and its speed on the bases. The starting pitching of Kim Jin-woo, Rios, and Choi Sang-duk is the strongest among the eight baseball teams in the league. Kia’s strongest trademark is its base stealing prowess, stealing 146 bases, the most in the league. Lee Chong-bum, ‘The Son of Wind’, has 50 and Kim Chong-gook has 31.

SK has the most power. Excluding Lee Ho-choon, there was no overpowering hitter, but SK has the ability of hitting homeruns by everyone in the lineup. This includes Cho Kyung-hwan who hit 23 homeruns and Park Kyung-wan who hit 15. The total number of homeruns for the team is 156, third in the league. On the other hand, Kia had only 129 home runs.

The rising mood of SK is a non negligible variable. Up to now, with the exception of Hanwha in 1994, six teams who grasped two successive victories in the semi playoffs went on to the Korean Series.

The starting pitchers for the first game will be Kim Jin-woo for Kia and Chae Byung-ryong for SK. Kim Jin-woo recorded one victory in two appearances against SK, but he had a high ERA of 8.31 in those appearances. On the other hand, Chae Byung-ryong had two victories and one save in four appearances, with an ERA of 3.60.

The difference between manager Kim, who believes the importance of the ace pitcher and lets him go on in big games, and manager Cho who attaches importance to relative record comes to front.

SK which has the best reliever, Cho Woong-chun, is advantageous in closing games. Kia, however, has Shin Yong-woon, Lee Gang-chul, and Chin Phil-choong in its bullpen.

Chang Jeon Hwan-Soo Zang jeon@donga.com zangpabo@donga.com