Rainout may have also washed away Lions' rest advantage over Tigers

The Samsung Lions last played a competitive game two weeks ago at the end of the KBO regular season. By finishing in second place, they earned a bye to the best-of-five second round in the postseason.

Their opponents, the Kia Tigers, had to play an extra round of the postseason to reach this point. But they have also had enough time off between the two rounds. The Tigers completed their three-game sweep of the LG Twins in the previous series last Tuesday. Then they were afforded an extra day off Sunday when the scheduled Game 1 of the Lions series was postponed due to rain.

This situation has negated whatever rest advantage the Lions might have enjoyed, manager Park Jin-man said Monday.

“I think we are both starting from the same point, when it comes to the teams' energy level and stamina,” Park said in his pregame media availability at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu. “So this is going to be a battle of power versus power.”

The KBO postseason rewards higher seeds with extra rest after the regular season but those teams often deal with rust, too, with hitters in particular having trouble with their timing in early at-bats of the postseason.

Park took it all in stride.

“I think our hitters may be sharper. We played our scrimmage a day after the Tigers ended their series,” Park said with a smile. “We set our training schedules so that everyone got to swing the bat in the scrimmage. Our hitters struggled a bit toward the end of the regular season but I think they are back on track now.”

Yonhap