Dominican ace Reyes tosses scoreless gem to send Lions to Korean Series

Taking the ball six days after winning his first postseason game in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Samsung Lions ace Denyi Reyes delivered an even better performance Saturday to send his club to the Korean Series for the first time in nine years. Reyes threw seven shutout innings as the Lions eked out a 1-0 win over the LG Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul to win their best-of-five series in four games. Reyes was the winning pitcher in the Lions' 10-4 victory in Game 1 on Sunday, when he held the Twins to three runs -- one earned -- over 6 2/3 innings. He struck out only one but also gave up just four hits. On Saturday, Reyes earned his second win of the series after keeping the Twins bats in check by mixing in six different types of pitches. Once again, he did not have a high strikeout total, fanning just two batters, but limited the Twins to three singles. With two victories and a miniscule ERA of 0.66, Reyes was voted the series MVP. He collected 42 of 55 votes from media. Reyes threw a season-high 110 pitches on Saturday -- 39 four-seam fastballs, 23 cutters, 22 changeups, 19 sliders, six sinkers and one curveball. The day began inauspiciously for Reyes, who hit the leadoff man Hong Chang-ki with his third pitch of the day. But catcher Kang Min-ho threw out Hong attempting to steal second, and after Shin Min-jae reached on an error, Reyes got Austin Dean to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play. Reyes received more help from his defense in the second inning. Kang threw out another would-be base stealer, this time nabbing Oh Ji-hwan at second. And first baseman Lewin Diaz ran down a foul pop by Park Dong-won and made a difficult, over-the-shoulder catch for the final out of the inning. From then on, Reyes was quietly effective, retiring 10 straight batters via pop outs, harmless flies to the outfield. He only had one strikeout during that stretch. Reyes found himself in trouble in the sixth, after a single, a steal and a hit-by-pitch put runners at first and second for Shin Min-jae. Followi ng a mound visit, Reyes induced a rally-killing, 4-6-3 double play ball from Shin, and let out a scream of joy coming off the mound. And Reyes gave himself more to celebrate in the seventh, when he retired the side in order on 13 pitches. Reyes and Twins starter Dietrich Enns were locked in a pitching duel all day, with Enns striking out eight over six shutout innings in his best postseason start so far. But with Enns out of the game in the top eighth, Reyes' batterymate, Kang Min-ho, came through for the Lions with a solo home run that broke the scoreless deadlock. With the count at 3-1 against lefty reliever Son Ju-young, Kang turned on a belt-high fastball and sent it 129 meters into the seats in left-center for his third career postseason homer. Kang will finally play in his first Korean Series at age 39. He has played 2,369 games in the regular season without appearing in the Korean Series, more than any player in KBO history. Source: Yonhap News Agency