A four-hour, 55-minute battle. No one knew that the game between the LG Twins, who had announced a bullpen day, and the Lotte Giants, featuring Korean ace Park Se-woong, would be such a back-and-forth affair. The game was not decided until the bottom of the ninth inning, and it was only when the final out was called that the Lotte players’ arms were raised. 9-8, one run win.
Lotte won the game and moved up to seventh place. With the score tied at 8-8 in the top of the ninth inning, Na Seung-yup hit a single to right field with runners on first and second, and Kim Won-joong struck out the final batter, Park Hae-min, to win the game 9-8.
LG Electronics snapped a four-game losing streak and Lotte improved to 29 wins, 2 draws and 36 points to move into seventh place, ahead of the Hanwha Eagles, who lost on the day. It’s their first seventh-place finish this season.
After taking the lead in the top of the first inning with a double by Na Seung-yeop, Lotte fell behind 1-2 in the bottom of the inning when starter Park Se-woong’s throwing error allowed two runs to score on back-to-back push balls. After a sacrifice fly by Jung Hoon tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the third inning, the Lions regained the lead at 3-2 in the top of the fourth inning on a solo home run by Jung’s first of the season. However, a sacrifice fly by Park Dong-won tied the game in the bottom of the fourth inning and an infield grounder by Austin in the top of the fifth inning cut the deficit to 3-4. In the top of the seventh, Lee hit another solo shot over the left field fence to make it 6-4, two runs. It was the first multi-homer game of his career.
But the game wasn’t over.
Lotte brought up Kim Sang-soo in the bottom of the seventh, but gave up an RBI single to Kim Hyun-soo, a sacrifice fly to Austin, and a two-run double to Moon Bo-kyung to cut the deficit to 6-7.
In the top of the eighth inning, LG brought up Kim Jin-sung to pinch-hit for Lotte, but Lotte refused to give up, and after the first batter, Kim Dong-hyuk, was thrown out at the plate on a catcher’s interference call, the next batter, Park Seung-wook, hit a two-run shot over the right field fence from Kim Jin-sung to make it 8-7.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Park Dong-won tied the game again to make it 8-8.
The ninth inning was a battle of the closers.
Lotte faced LG’s Yoo Young-chan in the top of the ninth, and Yoon Dong-hee led off with a double to left field, but Ko Seung-min struck out swinging, and after 메이저토토사이트 Son Ho-young’s automatic double, pinch-hitter Lee Jung-hoon struck out swinging again to put runners on first and second. Na Seung-yeop, who had walked Yoo Young-chan the day before, was the hero this time. In a 1B2S, he hit a five-pitch forkball for a clean single to right field to bring home the runner from second.
In the bottom of the ninth, LG got another chance when Ahn Ik-hoon led off with a single to right off Kim Won-joong. Austin then struck out on a wild pitch, allowing Kim to steal second base. However, there was a problem when catcher Son Sung-bin collided with Austin while trying to throw to second base and was unable to make the throw.
The umpire called Austin’s throw interference and ordered the runner at second base to return to first base, but the umpires agreed and the stolen base was ruled a double. Manager Kim Tae-hyung protested at length, but the umpires didn’t listen. Son Sung-bin’s throwing motion was judged to be a throw. Kim was eventually ejected for protesting for more than four minutes.
Kim Won-joong induced a ground ball in front of the first baseman with a forked ball after a battle with Moon Bo-kyung. He faced the final batter, Park Hae-min, on a 토토사이트 순위 full count and struck out swinging with a low 149-kilometer fastball. The four-hour, 55-minute game was over.
LG used a whopping nine pitchers to keep the Lotte bats at bay, but Lotte pounded out 18 hits to pull out the win.
“All of our players did their best to win the game even though it was tough,” said LOTTE manager Kim Tae-hyung after the game, “I want to praise Na Seung-yeop for hitting the game-winning hit, Lee Jung-geun for hitting two home runs, and Park Seung-wook for hitting a home run in a crucial situation.” “Our closer, Kim Won-joong, also pitched a scoreless inning to preserve the win.”
“I would also like to thank the Lotte fans for their enthusiastic support until the late hours,” said Kim, who also expressed his gratitude to the fans.