I know I recently did one of these KBO photo essays, but Olympic gold medalist Jang Mi-ran throwing out the first pitch before today’s Doosan/Woori game is kind of a special occasion I’d say. Doosan, who early in the week participated in the longest game in KBO history, went extras again today, beating the Heroes in the 12th inning 5-3 on a Kim Hyun-su double that drove in two.

SK blew a terrific performance by Esteban Yan, who threw seven innings of shutout ball only to have the bullpen blow a five run lead in the eighth and ninth innings. Yan was dominant in his  fifth appearance and second start, lowering his ERA to 0.54 through 16 2/3 innings. But Seo Dong-wook’s single to center off  gold medalist Jung Dae-hyun scored two, giving LG just its 38th win of the season.

That’s Seo on the  ground getting kicked and having  water dumped all over his body.  

Speaking of  guys named Seo, Seo Jae-woong made just his fourth start since  late June, and got tagged for five runs in four innings to  take the loss versus Lotte. Seo is now 4-4 for the Tigers. The win kept Lotte just one game back of the second place Bears, and was the Giants 15th in 16 games. I’m starting to get the feeling that Lotte is the one team in the KBO that could possibly knock off SK in the playoffs.

Jang Won-jun picked up the win for Lotte, going 8 1/3 before giving way to David Cortez, who picked up his fourth save and has now pitched five scoreless innings. Jang is now 12-7 and has an ERA of 2.86. The lefty has emerged as one of Lotte’s most dependable pitchers of the year. Jang hails from Suyoung-dong in Busan for the one or two of you that care about that.

And finally, Samsung beat Hanwha 2-1 behind strong pitching from Yun Sung-hwan, who went 7 1/3 innings. Oh Sung-hwan picked up his league leading 34th save. The loss droped Hanwha into fifth place.

As always check out 화이팅!: True Stories of Korean Baseball for more coverage.