“I want to praise the players for doing their best in their roles”
The Lotte Giants won the fourth home game of the season against the Kia Tigers of the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League 4-2 at Sajik Stadium in Busan on April 22. The win extended Lotte's winning streak to two games and secured their fifth win series of the season.
After knocking off 'leader' KIA the day before with a perfect two-hit balance, LOTTE scored the runs they needed at the right time and put on a dominant performance on the mound. Despite missed scoring opportunities in the first and second innings, it was Lotte who took the lead. In the bottom of the third inning, with the bases loaded after a single by Go Seung-min and a walk by Victor Reyes, Kim Min-sung blasted a two-run double to left field.
Lotte quickly widened the gap. In the bottom of the fifth, leadoff hitter Hwang Sung-bin tripled and Ko Seung-min singled to put runners on first and third, and this time Reyes traded one out for a run of his own to make it 3-0. Of course, Kia wasn't going to go down without a fight. After Park Chan-ho singled in the top of the sixth, Kim Do-young followed with a two-run double to right-center field. In the bottom of the seventh, Reyes drove in another run with runners on first and second to give Lotte a 4-1 lead.
Park had enough pace to complete the game, so Lotte brought in Kim Won-joong in the ninth inning. The result was beautiful, but the process was rough. After giving up a leadoff single to Park Chan-ho, Kim gave up back-to-back walks to Na Sung-beom and Choi Hyung-woo, and an RBI single to Lee Woo-sung to cut the deficit to 4-2. Kim Won-joong then induced a fly ball to right field to Kim Sun-bin for the second out, but a relay play of right fielder (Shin Yoon-hoo)-1st baseman (Na Seung-yup)-3rd baseman (Park Seung-wook)-catcher (Yoo Kang-nam) to get Park, who was trying to steal home from third base, to the plate for the final out and preserve the win.
Park Se-woong earned his fifth win of the season with a dominant start (eight innings or less), throwing 89 pitches, allowing one run (one earned) on four hits, one walk, and two strikeouts, while Kim Min-sung finished with 스포츠토토 one hit and two RBIs, Hwang Sung-bin had two hits and two runs scored, and Victor Reyes had one hit, two RBIs, one run scored, and one walk.
Kim Min-sung, who hit the game-winning hit, said, “I don't feel like I'm hitting too badly lately. I'm happy that I'm getting good results one by one. The timing was good, but I didn't think it was over. I was just hoping for a good result, and it came,” he said, laughing and commenting on the team's recent upswing, ”Honestly, it's time to win. And we need to win. There's a lot of season left, but at the end of the day, there's only three or four games between fifth and fourth place. That's why one game is important now. We are missing (Jeon) Joon-woo and (Son) Ho-young, but it will be an opportunity for someone. If you see our guys running around from the first inning to the ninth inning, defending, you will feel a lot different. As a senior, I will try to lead this atmosphere well.”
Park also said, “My coach told me that in a save situation, you have to finish. I would have been greedy if it was a complete game. But I'm glad I was able to save the pitcher today. (Kim) Won-joong is a good closer,” he laughed, adding, ”I can feel that the players have bonded a lot and become one. It's our mission and goal to lighten the load on the middle pitchers as much as possible. We're doing a good job right now, so we'll keep up the pace,” he said encouragingly.
“Our starter Park Se-woong pitched very well,” said Kim Tae-hyung, “and in the batting order, everyone was focused and did their part, especially veteran Kim Min-sung, who hit a valuable two-run double early in the game to get us going. Despite the loss of captain Jeon Jun-woo and veteran Jeong Hoon, I would like to praise the players for sticking together as a team and doing their best in their respective roles,” he smiled.
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