More than a month after opening the season on March 23, and nearly 30 games into the season, the Lotte Giants have yet to reach the 10-win plateau. The batting lineup, which seemed to be coming alive, has gone silent again.
Lotte lost 0-2 in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League away game against the NC Dinos at Changwon NC Park on April 27.
The loss was Lotte’s second in a row following the previous day’s game, and set up a three-game series against NC this weekend. Lotte’s season record now stands at 8 wins, 19 losses, and one draw, with a winning percentage of 0.296. On the other hand, NC moved to within two games of the first-place KIA Tigers.
Lotte started right-hander Na Gyun-an (26) on the mound. He’s been a bit up and down this season, but in his previous start, in the second game of a doubleheader against Sasik KT on April 21, he pitched six innings of eight-hit ball with five strikeouts and three runs allowed. It was his first win of the season after starting with three straight losses.
Na Gyun-ahn pitched relatively well on the day. He gave up a leadoff single to Park Min-woo in the first inning, but retired the next six batters to close out the second inning. In the third inning, Kim Hyung-joon singled, sacrificed bunted, and Park Min-woo singled to center to put runners on first and third. He got Son Asub on a swinging strikeout and then got Park Geon-woo to ground out to shortstop to end the inning.
Na Gyun-an, who had been pitching well, couldn’t get any help from his defense and gave up the first run. In the bottom of the fourth inning, with runners on first and second after Kwon Hee-dong’s single and Seo Ho-cheol’s walk, Kim Hyung-joon hit a grounder toward third base, but third baseman Kim Min-sung tried to backhand it, but it didn’t catch properly and fell backward. The runner from second came home. In the fifth inning, Na Gyun-ahn hit an RBI single off Kwon Hee-dong to make the score 2-0.
Na got out of the fifth inning without allowing another run, and Lotte went on to score no runs in the sixth inning, with Kim Sang-soo (sixth), Han Hyun-hee (seventh), and Lim Jun-seop (eighth) looking shaky.
However, the batting lineup was unable to help the pitching staff. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have their chances. In the first inning, Jang Doo-sung led off with a single off NC starter Kim Si-hoon, but was promptly thrown out at the plate. In the second inning, Jeon Jun-woo led off with a single but was stranded at second base.
Lotte had its third straight leadoff hitter in the third inning 카지노사이트 when Noh Jin-hyuk walked and Jang Doo-sung singled to load the bases. However, Jeong-Hoon Jung in the second inning hit a grounder to third base to end the inning.
Lotte’s biggest disappointment came in the sixth inning. After back-to-back singles by Jeon Jun-woo and Son Ho-young, Kim Min-sung drew a walk to load the bases. NC switched pitchers to left-hander Kim Young-kyu, and Lotte brought in pinch-hitter Yoon Dong-hee. After calmly drawing a three-pitch at-bat, Yoon fought hard, hitting a foul ball just off the left-field line, but after a seven-pitch at-bat, she was forced to ground out to the third baseman to end the threat.
In the end, Lotte was unable to score a single run. In the top of the ninth, Yoon Dong-hee doubled against Yoo Yong-chan, but Noh Jin-hyeok grounded out to the pitcher and Son Sung-bin struck out swinging to end the game.
Lotte had seven hits and four walks on the day, but none of them came home. NC didn’t come up with any big hits either, but at least they scored the runs they needed to.
The batting lineup has been a challenge for Lotte early in the year. Through 27 games, Lotte has a team batting average of .260, which ranks ninth out of 10 clubs. However, their team OPS ranks last at 0.699. The team is the only one of the 10 teams that hasn’t hit more than 20 home runs and is struggling with a lack of long ball power.
Foreign-born Victor Reyes leads the way with a .351 batting average and four home runs, while captain Jeon Jun-woo is hitting .301 with three home runs. Son Ho-young, who was acquired from the LG Twins, has been hitting well with a .309 average in 22 games. However, Hwang Sung-bin, who blasted three home runs in two games of a doubleheader against KT on April 21, hasn’t been able to hit the ball as well, ranking second on the team in home runs.
The lack of performance from trusted players is painful. Free agent duo Yoo Kang-nam (0.122 batting average) and Noh Jin-hyuk (0.154) are in a one-hit slump, and both have been sent down to the second team. Han Dong-hee (0.125) and Kim Min-seok (0.179), who returned from injury, have also not been able to fully recover.
Lotte showed signs of rebounding with a nine-run win over LG in Jamsil on April 18 and a 20-run win over KT in a three-game series at home. However, the team has been in a tailspin since being declared a no-game in rainy weather despite home runs by Jeon Jun-woo and Kim Min-sung against Sasik SSG on the 23rd. They then went scoreless in two consecutive games against NC. In the game on the 26th, starter Charlie Barnes took the loss after giving up two runs despite striking out 11 in six innings of work.
As of the 27th, Lotte was the only team in the league without 10 or more wins. It’s still early in the season, but if the win-loss margin gets too wide, the momentum of the chase could be lost.