The Lotte Giants, who have been in a slump since the beginning of July, have won their second win of the month. Once again, a foreign ace played a big role.
The Giants won their 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League regular-season home game against the Doosan Bears 4-0 at Munsu Baseball Stadium in Ulsan, South Korea on Saturday.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak for Lotte and marked their second win in July. Lotte’s season record now stands at 37 wins, 46 losses, and three ties (0.446 winning percentage). The team moved back from ninth to eighth place in the standings by overtaking the Hanwha Eagles, who did not play on the day, by 0.5 games. They were last among the 10 clubs with a 1-6 record in July, but have climbed out of the mire.
The hero of the day for Lotte was left-hander Charlie Barnes. Barnes, who also pitched six shutout innings against SSG in Incheon on July 10, the team’s only win in July, picked up his fifth win of the season with seven innings of one-hit ball, one walk and nine strikeouts. At the plate, No. 8 Park Seung-wook delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the seventh inning, while Choi Hang-hang, batting ninth in the order, hit a two-run single to center field.
On the other side, Doosan’s starter Choi Won-jun pitched five innings of three-hit ball, striking out three and walking one, but the offense couldn’t get enough support, and Hong Gun-hee, Lee Byung-heon, and Lee Young-ha, who had to share the duties due to an injury to Choi Ji-kang, gave up three runs in the seventh inning. The Doosan bats were unable to get a hit, except for Yang Seok-hwan in the second inning, to give Choi the win.
The game was a pitcher’s duel for most of the day. LOTTE starter Barnes cooked the Doosan bats without much trouble. Despite the fact that Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop had sent his right-handed hitters forward, referring to them as “lefties,” Barnes was able to easily cook Doosan’s right-handed hitters.
After the first five batters retired the first two batters of the inning, Yang Seok-hwan singled to right-center to lead off the bottom of the second, but no one else followed. From there, it was all Barnes. From the third through the seventh inning, except for a single by Kang Seung-ho in the fifth, he didn’t even touch first base.
In response, Doosan starter Choi Won-jun had a few bumps in the road, but was still able to keep the game scoreless. With one out in the bottom of the first, Na Seung-yup 사설 토토사이트 singled to right, and the next batter, Ko Seung-min, reached first base on an error by the first baseman, but he was thrown out trying to steal second, leaving the bases loaded, and Choi got Victor Reyes to ground out to Jeon Jun-woo to end the inning.
Lotte had runners on first and second in the second inning after Noh Jin-hyuk singled and Son Sung-bin walked, but Yoon Dong-hee struck out swinging to end the threat. In the fourth inning, Lee Jung-hoon singled up the middle and the LOTTE bench brought in Hwang Sung-bin to pinch-hit, but the opportunity was squandered when Hwang was tagged out at the plate on a wild pitch. In the fifth inning, Yoon Dong-hee singled with one out to close out the inning.
However, Lotte didn’t waste their starting pitcher’s hard work. In the bottom of the seventh, LOTTE put runners on first and second with a walk to leadoff hitter Jeon Jun-woo and a bunt single by Hwang Sung-bin. After pinch-hitter Jung Hoon walked, No. 8 Park Seung-wook hit a rolling double down the left-field line off Doosan’s third pitcher Lee Byung-heon, scoring Jeon Jun-woo from second.
Then, with runners on first and second, Choi Hang, pinch-hitting for Son Sung-bin, blasted a 1-2-3 double to right-center field off Lee Young-ha, the new pitcher, to put both runners in scoring position. The score was 3-0 in an instant.
At 9 p.m., after the bottom of the seventh inning, the game was suspended due to heavy rain at Munsu Baseball Stadium. After a 40-minute wait, the field was repaired and the game resumed at 10 p.m. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Lotte broke the game open when Reyes hit a solo home run.