Jang Won-sam pitched six innings of two-run ball and Shin Myung-chul homered on an eighth-inning Grand Slam to lift South Korea’s Samsung Lions past Australia’s Perth Heat in a 10-2 final in the opener of the Asia Series at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Even though the final score might suggest a blowout win for the Lions, the Perth Heat actually played their opponents quite hard through the fifth. They trailed the favored Lions by two runs (3-1) and managed to fall within a run of the Lions with a run in the top of the sixth before giving up seven unanswered runs over the final three frames to lose by eight.
“[The Heat] actually played a very good game against us, although the final score may suggest an easy win for us; there was definitely nothing easy about the win,” Lions manager Ryu Jong-li said after the game.
Australia’s top club managed to score first against Jang after two scoreless innings with a run in the top of the third, courtesy of Allan De San Miguel’s two-out double.
The 1-0 lead for the Heat lasted less than an inning, as the Lions answered with three runs in the bottom of the same inning when Park Sok-min connected on a two-run double off Heat starter Daniel Schmidt, followed by an error by the Heat defense that led to the Lions’ third run in the inning.
The 3-1 lead stood through the fifth, until De San Miguel went deep against Jang on a solo blast to left in the sixth that made it 3-2.
The Lions got the run back in the bottom of the sixth before erupting for six hits, including Shin’s Grand Slam off Heat reliever Warwick Saupold, in a six-run eighth.
Jang was credited with the win for his six solid innings of play, while the loss went to the Heat’s Schmidt, who lasted 5-1/3 innings of play with four allowed runs, two earned, on five hits .
UNI-PRESIDENT LIONS 2, SOFTBANK HAWKS 6
Taiwan’s Uni-President Lions trailed the defending champions, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan, in a 6-2 game through the eighth late last night in the opener for both teams.
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