Wins can be hard to come by for middle relievers, who do the grunt work, while starters and closers get more of the spotlight by picking up victories and saves. LG Twins rookie reliever You Young-chan picked up his first career win in his 24th appearance Tuesday night, after tossing 1 2/3 shutout innings against the Lotte Giants in a 3-1 victory. One may be tempted to say You is lucky to get the first win out of the way so early in his career. Dig a little deeper into his career, though, and you

Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres has homered for the fifth time this season, reaching a career milestone in the process. Kim hit a solo home run to lead off the top of the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington on Wednesday. Kim's blast to the right-center field, off Nationals starter Trevor Williams, cut the Padres' deficit to 5-3. Kim drilled a 1-1 fastball from Williams for his first home run off a fastball this season. It was Kim's fi

Veteran pitcher Jang Won-jun needed 15 days to go from career win No. 128 to No. 129 in 2018. It then took the Doosan Bears left-hander five years to get to his 130th victory in the Korea Baseball Organization. That long-awaited win came Tuesday night in a "turn-back-the-clock" performance against the Samsung Lions at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. The 37-year-old allowed four runs on seven hits in five innings, but his Bears teammates gave him plenty of run support in a 7-5 victory

Through Sunday's action in South Korean baseball, the SSG Landers and the LG Twins shared first place with identical records. Something will have to give this week, when the two best teams in the Korea Baseball Organization square off for three games starting Tuesday. The Landers and the Twins are both at 26-14-1 (wins-losses-ties), two games ahead of the Lotte Giants in a tie for first place. The Landers will host the Twins for a three-game series at home, Incheon SSG Landers Field, some 3

INCHEON -- Taking over a franchise trying to get out of the abyss in South Korean baseball, new Hanwha Eagles manager Choi Won-ho said Friday he will look to lay the foundation for success for the longer term, if not this year. In an abrupt announcement that caught many in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) by surprise Thursday night, Choi was named successor to Carlos Subero, who was sacked 31 games into the final season of his three-year contract. Choi, who had been the Eagles' minor

In the end, the Hanwha Eagles ran out of patience. After finishing in last place in the Korea Baseball Organization in three straight seasons, including the past two campaigns under Venezuelan manager Carlos Subero, the Eagles decided it was time to stop rebuilding and start winning. The front office made some big free agent acquisitions in the offseason, including star outfielder Chae Eun-seong, but it felt Subero, with his constant lineup tinkering, wasn't quite following the organization

When veteran catcher Park Dong-won signed with the LG Twins as a free agent last November, he kept thinking about one particular thing. "I didn't want to hear Twins fans say, 'We shouldn't have signed this guy,'" Park said Tuesday, after helping the Twins rally for a 5-4 victory over the Kiwoom Heroes with a game-tying, two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. With the kind of season Park has put together so far, he wo

With the winning run standing 90 feet away in the bottom of the 10th inning, LG Twins outfielder Shin Min-jae walked up to the plate for only the fourth time this season Tuesday night. The only thing on the mind of the little-used backup was to put his bat on the ball. And he did exactly that with his infield single to second base, which cashed in the decisive run in the Twins' 5-4 victory over the Kiwoom Heroes. It was the Twins' fourth consecutive win in the Korea Baseball Organizati

Na Gyun-an, a former catcher now leading the starting rotation for the biggest early surprise in South Korean baseball, has been voted the league's top player for April. The Korea Baseball Organization announced Tuesday that Na, the right-handed ace for the Lotte Giants, is the Player of the Month for April. The 25-year-old went 4-0 with a 1.34 ERA in five starts in April. He tied for the league lead in wins and ranked fourth in ERA last month, as the Giants, to the surprise of many, wrappe

The Kia Tigers announced Monday they have hired former All-Star Shim Jae-hak as their new general manager. Shim, 50, is replacing Jang Jung-suk, who was fired in March for allegedly asking a free agent player for a kickback during contract negotiations in the last offseason. Shim played for four different clubs in the Korea Baseball Organization from 1995 to 2008, and spent his final five seasons with the Tigers. He previously served on the coaching staff for the Kiwoom Heroes and worked as a ca

The defending South Korean baseball champions SSG Landers announced their signing of former major league pitcher Roenis Elias on Thursday. The acquisition comes less than 24 hours after Landers manager Kim Won-hyong acknowledged that the club was close to signing the former major league pitcher from Cuba. Elias, 34, will make $540,000 for the rest of this Korea Baseball Organization season. He is replacing Enny Romero, who never pitched for the Landers, preseason or regular season, due to should

Following his first professional start, Samsung Lions reliever Oh Seung-hwan has come away feeling better about himself. After making 979 relief appearances in three leagues -- Korea Baseball Organization, Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball -- since his debut in 2005, Oh started a game for the first time at age 40 against the Kiwoom Heroes on Wednesday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu. Lions pitching coach Jong Hyun-wook had talked Oh into startin

For the first time in his illustrious career as a reliever, Samsung Lions right-hander Oh Seung-hwan will start a game this week, his manager said Tuesday, as desperate times called for desperate measures. To help the struggling 40-year-old return to form, Lions manager Park Jin-man has decided to give Oh the ball to start Wednesday's game against the Kiwoom Heroes at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, some 235 kilometers southeast of Seoul. "Oh Seung-hwan has been talking to pitching

Don't look now, but here come the Lotte Giants, for the second straight spring. After getting virtually no love from pundits in preseason prognostications, the Giants are sitting pretty atop the Korea Baseball Organization standings with a 14-8 record after the first month of the season. This is familiar territory for the Busan-based club this time of year. At the end of April 2022, the Giants were in second place at 14-9-1 (wins-losses-ties). But they finished the season in eighth place at

The South Korean baseball league said Thursday it has topped 1 million in attendance after 101 games this season, the fifth-fastest rate in the current 10-team setting. The Korea Baseball Organization announced that its 10 teams combined to surpass the 1 million mark after the previous night's games. This is the fifth-earliest point in a season for the KBO to reach 1 million fans drawn since it expanded to 10 teams in 2015. Clubs each play 144 games, 16 times against each other. In 2019, th