Sports Briefs

BASEBALL

Mariners’ Lee finishes first MLB season with a single

Lee Dae-ho of the Seattle Mariners concluded his rookie season in Major League Baseball on Sunday, going 1-for-3 while tallying a run against the Oakland Athletics.

The Mariners lost their final game of the season to the A’s 3-2.

Lee hit a single off an 85.3-mile-an-hour change-up by Sean Manaea, the A’s starting pitcher, at the bottom of the fifth. The Korean rookie reached third base in the next play when Ben Gamel hit a double. He remained there for the next two plays, but when Guillermo Heredia drove a double, Lee was able to get home, along with Gamel.

But for the remainder of the game, the Mariners were unable to add any runs to the scoreboard, ending their season with 86 wins and 76 losses.

In his rookie season, Lee batted .253 with 14 home runs, 49 runs batted in and 33 runs scored.

Eagles manager marks milestone 2,600th game

Hanwha Eagles manager Kim Sung-keun became the second person ever in Korean baseball to find himself at the 2,600th game of his managerial career.

The milestone came during a home game against the Nexen Heroes on Sunday at the Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park in Daejeon. For more than 32 years, Kim oversaw 2,600 games, second most in the history of the Korea Baseball Organization after former Eagles manager Kim Eung-ryong, who participated in 2,935 games throughout his career.

Kim began his managerial career in 1984 as boss of the OB Bears, the predecessor of the Doosan Bears, leading the club for four seasons.

Throughout his 22 seasons as manager, Kim recorded a winning percentage of .537 with 1,363 wins, 60 draws and 1176 losses, the second highest number of wins a manager has ever achieved.

Despite the record, the Eagles’ chase for the postseason came to an end for the second straight year under Kim’s watch.

By Choi Hyung-jo