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Kia Tigers thrash Samsung Lions 9-2 to extend Korean Series lead

Published: 27 Oct. 2024, 14:37 Updated: 27 Oct. 2024, 17:19

PAIK JI-HWAN
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JIM BULLEY
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The Kia Tigers celebrate their 9-2 victory over the Samsung Lions in Game 4 of the Korean Series at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on Saturday. [NEWS1]

The Kia Tigers thrashed the Samsung Lions 9-2 in Game 4 of the 2024 Korean Series on Saturday to take the series to 3-1. One more win will secure the Tigers' 12th series victory.

The Tigers did not allow a second straight loss to the Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu after losing Game 3 on Friday.

No. 9 hitter Kim Tae-gun was key to the Tigers’ win on Saturday, with the hitter smashing a grand slam in a six-run third inning and becoming the fifth player in Korean series history to hit a grand slam in the process. It was also his first home run in the KBO postseason.

The Kia Tigers' Kim Tae-gun celebrates after smashing a grand slam in a six-run third inning during Game 4 of the Korean Series against Samsung Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on Saturday. [YONHAP]

“When I saw the ball from my vantage point, I thought it was going to hook foul," Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency on Saturday, "I don't usually have enough strength to cheer and celebrate these days. But when that ball went over the fence, I somehow found something in me to let out a scream."

The Tigers are now one win away from their 12th series victory, which would keep the Gwangju club as the only team to win all their Korean Series.

The victory would mark their first Series win since 2017 and their second trophy of the season after claiming the 2024 regular campaign title.

Winning Game 5, 6 or 7 would allow the Tigers to celebrate their victory in front of their own fans, as all three games take place at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju.

As for the Lions, losing the next game would mark their 11th runner-up finish.

The Daegu club are already the second most successful team in Korean Series history, with eight titles, but have made it to the series 19 times, making them also the team with the most runner-up finishes.

All seven of the Lions’ titles came after 2000, dominating much of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Samsung also won the league in 1985, but no Korean Series was held that year, so they took the championship title, too.

The Lions head into Monday’s game with the absence of pitcher Won Tae-in, who left Saturday’s game due to shoulder injury.

“We are backed into a corner now, and we have to do everything we can to stay alive," Lions manager Park Jin-man told Yonhap on Saturday. "We will prepare for that game thinking it will be our last one of the year."

This year’s Korean Series marks the first time the championship has been played entirely out of Seoul since 2012, when the Lions beat the SK Wyverns, now the SSG Landers, and the first time outside of the greater Seoul area — encompassing Incheon and Gyeonggi — since 2006, when the Lions beat the Hanwha Eagles.

It also means that the KBO crown is guaranteed to go to a different team for an eighth consecutive season, with the last back-to-back titles secured by the Doosan Bears from 2015-2016.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN, JIM BULLEY [[email protected]]