Lee Woo-sung of the Kia Tigers rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the NC Dinos during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 270 kilometers south of Seoul, in this file photo from March 23, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 4 (Korea Bzwire) — Desperate times called for desperate measures for Kia Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho on Friday, as he tried to put together a starting lineup with some key players out with injuries for the 2024 Korean Series champions.
With the usual leadoff man, shortstop Park Chan-ho, sidelined, Lee has had to use three different players to bat at the top of his lineup. For the Tigers’ road game against the LG Twins in Seoul on Friday, left fielder Lee Woo-sung joined that list.
Lee will be making his first career start as leadoff man in his 10-year Korea Baseball Organization career.
“He swung the bat well last night, and we will be up against a left-handed starter (Song Seung-ki). And so we decided to give him a look,” Lee told reporters at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in his pregame scrum. “We don’t have a lot of right-handed batters at the moment. I am just trying to fit pieces into holes as we go.”
Aside from Park, the Tigers are also without the reigning league MVP Kim Do-yeong and veteran second baseman Kim Sun-bin. All three are right-handed batters.
The Tigers are so short on righties that they put six left-handed batters against Song, who threw seven shutout innings in his season debut on March 27.
Lee said he had never prepared himself for such a big wave of injuries this early in the season.
“It’s difficult to go into a season thinking you may be down three or four everyday players early on,” Lee said. “If it’s just a couple of players, it wouldn’t be that hard to plug holes and try to hold down the fort. But when the toll reached three players, it just became that much tougher for the rest of the team.
“But the good thing about baseball is we have a long season ahead of us,” Lee said, trying to crack a smile after his team’s 4-6-0 (wins-losses-ties) start. “I’ve told the players that they should keep competing with confidence and not put too much pressure on themselves. We’ll try to weather the storm until injured guys return.”
(Yonhap)
