Dinos chase 1st S. Korean baseball title against defending champs Bears

All News 07:00 November 15, 2020

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Nov. 15 (Yonhap) -- In a rematch from 2016, the NC Dinos and the Doosan Bears will clash in the South Korean baseball championship round, a series ripe with intriguing storylines.

Starting Tuesday, the best-of-seven Korean Series will pit the top-seed Dinos against the No. 3 seed Bears.

The Dinos earned a bye to the Korean Series by virtue of posing the best regular season record. The Bears went through two postseason rounds to make it to their record-tying sixth consecutive Korean Series.

In this file photo from Oct. 24, 2020, members of the NC Dinos celebrate their first Korea Baseball Organization regular season title following a 3-3 tie with the LG Twins at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

The Dinos, who joined the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2013, are trying to win their first Korean Series. The Bears are the defending champions and have won three of the past five titles.

For the second of those three championships, the Bears swept the Dinos in 2016.

The entire series will be played at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul as the neutral venue. The coronavirus pandemic forced the KBO to push back the start of the regular season from March 28 to May 5. Teams still played their usual, 144-game regular season, and the postseason started in November for the first time in league history. The dome was set up as the venue for the final two rounds of the postseason to protect fans and players from cold mid-November conditions.

The Dinos won the season series 9-7. They were the top home run-hitting club this season with 187 and had 20 homers against the Bears.

For the regular season, the Dinos were the highest-scoring team while the Bears had the best team ERA. Something will have to give.

Members of the Doosan Bears celebrate after clinching a spot in their sixth straight Korean Series after beating the KT Wiz 2-0 in Game 4 of the second round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Nov. 13, 2020. (Yonhap)

The Dinos became the first team in league history to produce a trio of players with at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs: designated hitter Na Sung-bum (34 homers and 112 RBIs), catcher Yang Eui-ji (33 Homers and 124 RBIs) and outfielder Aaron Altherr (31 homers and 108 RBIs).

Because the Dinos haven't played since their regular season finale on Oct. 31, their hitters may have trouble getting their timing down early on against in-form Doosan pitchers, who have been in pressure-packed postseason action for nearly two weeks.

Their No. 1 starter Chris Flexen has been particularly dominant. He fired six shutout innings and struck out 11 to win the opening game of the first round against the LG Twins. Flexen then tossed 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball with 10 strikeouts against the KT Wiz in the next round, becoming the first pitcher in KBO history with at least 10 strikeouts in consecutive postseason starts.

Flexen then recorded a nine-out save to eliminate the Wiz in Game 4 of the second round on Friday. With 10 2/3 scoreless innings combined, Flexen was voted the MVP of that series.

In this file photo from Oct. 24, 2020, Yang Eui-ji of the NC Dinos hits a two-run home run against the LG Twins in the bottom of the fifth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

Flexen threw 30 pitches in that outing. He typically throws about 25 pitches in the bullpen in between starts, and Flexen essentially had his live batting practice against the hapless Wiz, who only got one hit against him. The right-hander should be ready for Game 1 on Tuesday.

The Dinos will likely counter with their own American ace, Drew Rucinski. He was 19-5 with a 3.05 ERA in the regular season.

The Dinos will also be hoping left-hander Koo Chang-mo will be available for Game 2. The 23-year-old was sensational in going 9-0 in his first 13 starts with a 1.55 ERA. The club deactivated him in late July to give him a breather but later discovered forearm inflammation and then fracture, which sidelined him for three months.

Those pitchers will be facing a determined Bears' team that will likely be broken up in the offseason. They have 11 players who are eligible for free agency, including their entire starting infield, and few, if any, of them are expected to be back with the team. Virtually the same core group of players has been together for the current six-year run, and knowing this will likely be their last hurrah should give them extra fuel.

Chris Flexen of the Doosan Bears pitches against the KT Wiz in the top of the seventh inning of Game 4 of the second round in the Korea Baseball Organization postseason at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Nov. 13, 2020. (Yonhap)

Having the motivation is one thing, but producing at the plate has been quite another for the Bears. They only batted .213/.259/.299 in four games against the Wiz in the previous series. Oh Jae-il, the 2019 Korean Series MVP, went 1-for-15 with six strikeouts, and was moved down from No. 3 to No. 8 in the lineup. Jose Miguel Fernandez, the two-time reigning hit king, managed only two hits in 17 at-bats. Park Kun-woo was 2-for-11 but batted leadoff in Game 4 because someone had to.

An interesting matchup will also take place behind the plate, with Yang calling the game for the Dinos against his former Doosan teammate and understudy Park Sei-hyok.

Yang backstopped the Bears to 2015 and 2016 titles, winning the Korean Series MVP in 2016, before joining the Dinos as a free agent. Park then took the vacant starting job and carried the Bears to the 2019 title.

These two clubs have met three times in postseasons and the Bears prevailed all three times -- in the second round in 2015 and 2017, and the Korean Series in 2016.