Note:I think since this is such a unique situation, and I’m watching the game at home anyway, I’m going to do live updates and upload some photos throughout  the evening.  I guess you could call this live blogging.

Updates will happen below…

Tonight Kim Kwang-hyun will make his final start of the regular season versus Kia in Gwangju with the KBO pitching triple crown on the line. He is currently first in the league in wins with 16 (next closest is Ryu Hyun-jin with 14), second to Kia’s Yoon Suk-min in ERA (2.44 to 2.50) and just five behind Ryu in strikeouts.

With Ryu already having made his final start on Sept. 30, the win title is a given. With 138 strikeouts in 155 innings this year, he’ll likely manage six tonight. The tricky part will be the ERA.  Kim has dominated Kia this season, going 4-0 with a 0.67 ERA and 22 Ks in 27 innings. Kia is a fastball hitting team and has no answer for Kim’s world class offspeed stuff.

Kim will need to throw 6 1/3 shutout innings to lower his ERA below 2.40. If he allows a single run his chances die. Only two pitchers in KBO history have won the triple crown — Ryu did it during his rookie year in 2006 and Sun Dong-yol, currently Samsung’s manager, remarkably pulled it off four times in 1986, and 1989-1991.

First inning:Kim makes it through the first inning 1, 2, 3. Strikes out Park Jae-sang, so he’s now four behind Ryu. Not sure how many pitches he threw because I was getting out of the shower, but I think that’ll come into play later in the game if hes’s ok on ERA, but still needs a strikeout or two.

Second inning:Well, on second thought the strikeout barrier could be reached quite quickly — Kim just K’d the side. He got Kia’s cleanup hitter Park Jae-hong looking on a slider, Lee Jae-won swinging on a curve out of the zone and Jung Sung-ho looking on a fastball. He now has four on the game and is just one behind Ryu.

And on top of it all a foreigner sighting in the stands during the broadcast. What a night in Gwangju.

Even though I think SK’s manager Kim Sung-keun is on board with Kim’s personal accomplishment he can’t be loving this. By winning the league SK has automatic entry into the Korean Series and naturally Kim will start Game 1. I’m sure he’s somewhat concerned about the long layoff (the Korean Series will start in the third week of October), but he’s got to be more concerned that Kim could get injured gunning for the triple crown in  a meaningless game. It goes against Kim’s “no one is bigger than the team” philosophy.

Third inning: Kim just blitzed through Lee Sung-woo to tie Ryu at 143 strikeouts. He’s looking just fantastic tonight, very loose, not overthrowing.

Ok, so much for the strikeouts. Kim just got Kim Sun-bin swinging. At 144 he leads the league and can now concentrate on the ERA title.  Just for the record Kim has struckout six of the eight batters he’s faced. Incredible.

He just struckout Choi Yeong-gyu to finish the side. Three perfect innings, seven Ks. It’s as if he could do this any time any game if he had to. It’ll be interesting to see if he changes his approach now that he’s got enough strikeouts.

Here  a neat little  photo progression from the wire. It’s not from tonight’s game, but proceeds the photo at top.

Fourth inning: Uh-oh. Kim’s in trouble. A sharply hit single to left by Yoo Jae-won followed by an Lee Ho-shin  bunt that Kim himself mishandled put runners on first and second for Kia. Error charged to Kim.  Na Ji-won followed with a sac bunt putting runners at second and third with one out.

Oh-no. On the pitch Kim falls to the ground. Lee Jae-joo hits a tapper back to him, which Kim fields from his knees. He springs up  and throws  to the plate but throws the ball clear over the  catcher’s head, allowing  both runs to score. Charge another error to Kim.

However: Kim is not charged with earned runs.  This actually brings up a fairly lame  rule that says that if the pitcher himself is charged with an error he’s not charged with an earned run. This comes up from time to time, but I’m going to hazzard a guess that it’s never come into play with a triple crown on the line.

I have to admit I had to do a little digging on this one. In fact, point three of section B in rule 10.16  (holly hell I’m f-ing quoting rules now) states:

No run shall be earned when scored by a runner who reaches first base:

3) because of any fielding error

I don’t believe manager Kim himself was aware of this rule because he clearly signalled to the bullpen after the runs scored. Kim didn’t know either because he looked absolutely crushed  after it happened and still  as he came off the mound to end the inning.

Fifth inning: I don’t want to call this a cheap way to win a triple crown, but it would have been much more exciting had Kim just K’d the side again like he had every other inning. Kim retires the side in order, but I missed it looking up this damn rule.

Of course it’s possible that the KBO’s rule differs from that of MLB. But I doubt it.

Amuse yourself with some photos from the error — kind of looks like someone who just lost his shot at a triple crown, no?

Sixth inning:I’m trying to get back on board with this thing but it’s tough. Kim retires the side in order, picks up his tenth strikeout and now needs one more out to win the pitching triple crown despite having made two errors in the fourth inning that led to two Kia runs.

In Korea, a pitcher’s ERA is often shown during the game, for that single, specific game. Coming out in the fifth inning his ERA was shown as still being 0.00 for the game. The announcers also noted this.

I’m a big fan of Kim’s so I’m going to look past this as best I can. His 6 IP, 1 H, O ER, 10K,  0 BB line  sure looks good.

Top of the seventh: I’m wondering how Kim will react if/when he gets this. There’s no way he’s as excited if he hadn’t made those two errors and been scored upon.  Of course, Kim is the best pitcher in the KBO,  has had an incredible year,  dominated Japan twice en route to Korea winning a  gold medal,  and is surely deserving of whatever accolades the league showers upon him at the end of the season.  

But did he win a pitching triple crown in 2008?

Bottom  of the seventh: Well this live blogging purgatory might as well get a little more intense. Kim takes the mound, needs one out to lower his ERA under 2.44 and a sideline reporter is interviewing a little girl in the stands. He gets the out, looks back at the scoreboard, smiles a little and the interview continues. He gets a second out and still nothing.

SK  must be  aware Kim has a hold on the triple crown, but they’re going to do the noble thing and make him pitch out the inning. I guess it’s noble.

At any rate, he’s allowed his second hit of the night to Kim Jeong-kuk. He goes to a full count to the next batter and throws a pitch to the backstop, allowing the runner to move to third. He’s really going to tempt fate here tonight, folks.

He finally gets the third out. He keeps looking back at the scoreboard, but the announcers are saying nothing.

Eighth inning: Kim is out of the game. I’m wondering how I’ve wasted most of my Saturday night  in a live blog.  

The Naver live update shows Kim as having a 0.00 ERA for the game, but a 2.50 ERA on the season. Nice.

Kim’s final line: 7 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 12 K, 1 BB. The game is tied so he won’t get the win. But I do believe he’s got  the triple crown.

Perhaps I’ve overlooked something: According to this articleKim “has a hold” on the triple crown, but is suggesting he could still lose it if Kia decides to pitch Yoon Suk-min in either of its last two games. Yoon hasn’t pitched since Sept. 13 and I had sort of assumed, since he pitched a fair amount  in the Olympics and  is the best pitcher on a bad team, that he was done for the year. Apparently I overlooked how badly Kia might want Yoon to win the ERA title —  or prevent Kim from winning the triple crown. Brutal.

The article is also suggesting Ryu could pitch again and attempt to get seven strikeouts, even though he just pitched on Sept. 30 and Hanwha has just one game remaining.

Twelvth inning, still 2-2: Heck, maybe Kia will have to bring Yoon in tonight. It’s getting to the point of where it’d actually make sense.