Ahead of his club’s 11th postseason game of this month, Samsung Lions manager Park Jin-man said Friday he was “proud” of his players for their collective show of determination and grit.
The Lions are set to play the Hanwha Eagles in the deciding Game 5 of their best-of-five Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason series at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon on Friday. They have made it this far after rallying from a 4-0 deficit in Game 4 for a 7-4 win.
As the No. 4 seed, the Lions began their postseason in the wild card round, where they needed two games to knock out the fifth-seed NC Dinos. Then it was on to the best-of-five first round, where the Lions upset No. 3 seed SSG Landers in four games.
The current series has featured a couple of one-run games and plenty of late-inning drama. Both teams now find themselves a win away from reaching the Korean Series.
“I know a postseason game takes so much out of you, a lot more than a typical regular-season game. And our players are squeezing out every last bit of their energy,” Park said in his pregame media availability. “I am really proud of the way they’ve been competing.”
Park said it starts from the top of the totem pole, with the 40-year-old catcher Kang Min-ho having played every inning so far.
“He’s running on fumes, but he’s really motivated to play every game,” Park said. “When veterans compete like that, it sets a great example for younger players to follow.”
The Lions are eyeing their second straight trip to the Korean Series. Last year, they posted the second-best regular-season record, despite preseason expectations that they would not be a playoff team. This year, they survived some long losing streaks and made a late push to get into the postseason.
“We overcame so much adversity during the season to come this far,” Park said. “I think a lot of our guys gained confidence from last year’s run. After going to the Korean Series last year, we don’t want our season to end before getting back there again this year.”