Lotte is shaking with 2 wins and 8 losses in 10 games. Now is the time to ‘prove’ rather than ‘momentum’, which was the topic at the beginning of the season.메이저놀이터
Lotte suffered three consecutive losses and fell to fourth place in the league. The win rate, which was around 60% after forming 1st to 3rd place in May, has also fallen to 0.534 (31 wins, 27 losses) due to recent sluggishness. On the contrary, the LG Twins, who are in first place, seem to be solidifying their lead by extending their game ride with Lotte to 5.5 games with a steep rise of 5 consecutive wins.
It is a time when there are still many variables left, but it is never a good trend for Lotte to fall behind in the top race in June. It is a crisis that the flow of the team can be fixed in the mid-ranking, rather than fiercely fighting in the top 3 structure.
Photo = Reporter Cheon Jeong-hwan
In fact, Lotte has 1.5 matches against the 3rd place NC Dinos and 5 matches against the 2nd place SSG Landers. It is only 2 games behind the 5th place Doosan Bears. It’s not a relief, it’s a certain crisis.
In fact, there is an aspect that Lotte’s ‘force’ played a big part in this season. Despite the team’s individual indicators, which were in the middle or lower middle, the team’s strong organization, back heart, fighting spirit of the players, and good strategy from the bench worked together to achieve a high win rate.
In June, when it was time to establish itself as a strong team, Lotte is sluggish with a win rate of 0.286 (4 wins and 10 losses), which is the lowest in the month.
What matters is how you end the rest of June. Even in April, Lotte was only 8th with 6 wins and 8 losses (0.429 win rate) in the first 14 games. However, after that, Lotte finished April with a 9-game winning streak and ranked first in the monthly win rate (0.636).
It is the beginning of the season that can rise to a higher level if several winning series and winning streaks continue. There are plenty of opportunities to change the atmosphere. It is still too early to predict Lotte’s season.
Photo = Reporter Cheon Jeong-hwan
However, there is a difference between April and Lotte now. If Lotte in April and May was a ‘fast ship’ that rode the positive team atmosphere and flow through ‘movement’, now it should show the aspect of a ‘large cruise ship’ that operates stably for a long time.
Of course, there is no reason why a winning streak is bad for a team. There is no event that reverses the flow of the team. Sometimes winning is worth all that solves a problem. However, it is not probabilistically easy to expect a long streak like April in the long flow of regular season races. In the end, it can be more effective in terms of overall team management to stably bring a good game to Lotte now than every series winning series.
After a successful April last year, Lotte Giants manager Larry Sutton left a very meaningful message to reporters in early May. At the time, Lotte manager Sutton said, “We have a task to prove to those who doubt Lotte. We must prove our strength to those who do not believe in our actions and potential,” he stressed.
However, as everyone knows last year, Lotte had an unsatisfactory season after experiencing a steep fall.
Lotte’s current crisis situation is the same. Now, the only way for Lotte to soar is to shake off the suspicious gaze from the outside, and to come together as one again to prove its own ‘strength’.