The Lotte Giants pounded the Doosan Bears’ mound with hits from all of their starters to reclaim seventh place after 51 days. The Giants are now 3.5 games back of fifth-place SSG Landers and 7-1 in their last eight games.
Lotte cruised to a 12-2 victory over the Doosan Bears of the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Thursday in the 12th game of the season between the two teams.
On the day, LOTTE earned its fourth win of the season with solid support from its offense, as starter Kim Jin-wook held Doosan’s bats to minimal runs despite a shaky start to the game, throwing 102 pitches in five innings with three hits, five walks, three strikeouts and one earned run (one earned). At the plate, Jun-woo Jeon exploded for a two-run double in his first at-bat, going 4-for-5 with a walk and a run scored, while Victor Reyes had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored, and Ho-young Son and Seung-min Ko each had two hits and two runs scored.
Lotte, in particular, built on the victory to win three straight games and move up to seventh place in the standings, a whopping 51 days after their last win against the Sasik Hanwha Eagles on June 28th.
Starting lineup
Lotte: Hwang Sung-bin (center fielder)-Ko Seung-min (second baseman)-Son Ho-young (third baseman)-Victor Reyes (left fielder)-Na Seung-yeop (first baseman)-Jeon Jun-woo (designated hitter)-Yoon Dong-hee (right fielder)-Park Seung-wook (shortstop)-Son Sung-bin (catcher), starting pitcher Kim Jin-wook.
Doosan: Jeong Soo-bin (center fielder)-Kang Seung-ho (second baseman)-Jared Young (right fielder)-Yang Ji-young (catcher)-Yang Seok-hwan (first baseman)-Kim Jae-hwan (designated hitter)-Heo Kyung-min (third baseman)-Jeon Min-jae (shortstop)-Yoo Chan Lee (left fielder), starter Jordan Balazovic.
The previous day (13th), the game was canceled due to water bombs raining down on Jamsil Stadium. On this day, there was also a rain forecast ahead of the game, but the rain clouds did not form in the direction of Jamsil Stadium, and the game started without any incidents of back-to-back cancelations. It was Lotte who took the early lead in the game. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning, they took advantage of back-to-back singles by Go Seung-min and Son Ho-young and a walk by Na Seung-yeop to load the bases, and Jeon Jun-woo came through as the “fixer” to bring both runners home.
With the momentum in their favor, Lotte continued to score. LOTTE added another run in the bottom of the second inning when Hwang Sung-bin, who doubled, took a seven-pitch fastball from Doosan’s “ace” Jordan Balazovic and smashed it over the right field wall for a one-out triple. Doosan responded in kind. After failing to capitalize on a chance to put runners on first and second in the first inning, Doosan closed the gap in the bottom of the second when Heo Kyung-min doubled and Lee Yoo-chan walked, and Jung Soo-bin hit a single just over the second baseman’s height off Lotte starter Kim Jin-wook to drive in the runners from second and third.
Balajovic, whose pitching has improved significantly over time since entering the KBO, continued to struggle. From the first inning onward, the game 파워볼사이트 추천 seemed to go sideways as he failed to capitalize on the high fastballs he threw against the Lotte bats. Lotte, on the other hand, capitalized on the advantage. In the bottom of the third inning, leadoff hitter Victor Reyes, the “Venezuelan Goliath,” took a curveball from Balazovic and blasted a two-run double to left-center field, then raced to third when left fielder Lee Yoo-chan fumbled the ball. And once again, Jeon Jun-woo traded his out for a run in scoring position, giving Lotte a three-run lead.
The momentum was firmly in Lotte’s favor as Doosan starter Balajovic went down after four innings, throwing a whopping 69 pitches in the second inning alone. In the top of the fifth inning, Na Seung-yeop and Jeon Jun-woo singled to put runners on first and third base before Yoon Dong-hee scored on a groundout to make it 5-1. In the top of the sixth inning, Reyes and Jeon Jun-woo hit back-to-back two-out RBI doubles off Doosan’s Kwon Hwi to score three runs after Go Seung-min singled and Son Ho-young walked to make it 8-1.
After giving up a run in the top of the first inning, Lotte’s starter Kim Jin-wook, who gave up two walks and a single in the second inning, retired the Doosan bats in order in the third inning with two strikeouts. He got Heo Kyung-min to fly out to second base, Jeon Min-jae to ground out to shortstop, and Lee Yoo-chan to fly out to center field for his first triple play of the game in the fourth inning, and then gave up two more strikeouts in the fifth inning, but got some help from his defense to get out of the inning with the win. Lotte then turned to its bullpen to solidify the win.
However, Doosan did not go down without a fight. In the top of the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Kim Jae-hwan took advantage of a 147-kilometer fastball from Lotte’s new pitcher, Han Hyun-hee, for a solo home run over the left field fence, his 10th of the season. It didn’t have much of an impact on the game, however. Lotte pounded the Doosan mound until the end of the game, scoring a run in the top of the eighth off Park Seung-wook and three more in the ninth off Son Ho-young, followed by Na Seung-yup and Jeon Jun-woo.
After starter Kim Jin-wook did his part with five innings of one-run ball, LOTTE used Han Hyun-hee (one inning of one-run ball), followed by Jin Hae-soo (⅔ innings), Kim Sang-soo (1⅓ innings), and Park Jin (one inning) to secure the victory, extending their winning streak to three games and reclaiming seventh place for the first time in 51 days.
