바카라사이트The Lotte Giants have unintentionally become a supporting player in the mid-table battle in the KBO this season. The most troubling aspect of their success has been solved: their bats have gone cold.
The Giants fell to a 2-4 loss in their 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League home game against the Doosan Bears at Munsu Baseball Stadium in Ulsan on 3 March. It was Lotte’s second straight loss since the start of July and a shaky start to the season. Heading out of Ulsan for the Rousing Series, Lotte has dropped to +1 for a five-game winning streak. The gap to fifth-placed Doosan has also narrowed to 1.5 games.
Lotte started the game with a lineup of Ko Seung-min (first base), Yoon Dong-hee (right field), Ahn Chi-hong (second base), Jack Rex (left field), Jeon Jun-woo (designated hitter), Park Seung-wook (shortstop), Han Dong-hee (third base), Hwang Sung-bin (centre field), and Son Sung-bin (catcher). In place of catcher Yoo Kang-nam, who felt discomfort in his knee, the team put Son Sung-bin, who joined the first team after leaving the military, in the starting line-up. They also benched rookie Kim Min-seok in favour of Hwang Sung-bin.
Despite the changes in the lineup, Lotte was unable to get anything going on the day. Against Doosan starter Raul Alcantara, who was second in the league in ERA (1.90) before this game, LOTTE squandered hard-earned chances. In the first inning, leadoff hitter Ko Seung-min singled but was stranded at second base. In the fourth inning, Yoon Dong-hee led off with a single, but a strikeout and a failed stolen base left the bases loaded with two outs.
Including this three-game series, Lotte has been in a slump since June. From 1 June to 2 July, Lotte scored 104 team runs, tied for last place with Doosan. Their team batting average of 0.249 was second only to the KIA Tigers (0.243). The team’s 11 home runs were the lowest among the 10 clubs, less than a third of the first-place SSG Landers’ 34.
The batting order has been split between the experienced Jeon Jun-woo (0.302 batting average, 0.831 OPS) and second-year player Yoon Dong-hee (0.306 batting average, 0.696 OPS). However, foreign hitter Rex, who is supposed to be a fixer-upper, has struggled with a .234 average, and veterans like Yoo Kang-nam and Ahn Chi-hong have not been as good as expected. Injuries to Noh Jin-hyuk (back) and Ahn Kwon-soo (elbow) were also a blow.
As a result, Lotte suffered its sixth consecutive losing series in June. The team’s win-loss margin, which was once as high as +11, was reduced to ‘0’ after the loss to LG Electronics in Jamsil on the 25th of last month. At the beginning of June, they were in a “three-way tie” with the LG Twins and SSG Landers, but now they are less than five games behind fifth-placed Doosan, and even ninth-placed KIA (4.5 games).
Recently, the KBO has seen a lot of chaos in the mid-table. The Hanwha Eagles, who were in ninth place with a win percentage in the low triple digits until May, have shaken things up recently with an eight-game winning streak. In addition, KT Wiz and Kiwoom Heroes, both of whom struggled at the start of the season, have been on a roll. The gap between Lotte and Hanwha, which was 10 games as of 31 May, has now narrowed to four games. This means that it is not safe to say that they are currently in fourth place.
Lotte, in particular, will play their final nine games of the first half against Hanwha, LG and NC, all of whom are either at the top of the table or have been on a recent upswing. While they have had a strong showing against NC, who are half a game behind them in third place, with a 5-1 record this season, it’s not reassuring at this point. Eventually, the batting line-up will have to come alive, but at the moment there are no clues aside from the return of Noh Jin-hyuk, who has been sidelined with back pain.