KT Wiz, who succeeded in advancing to the professional baseball postseason for the last three seasons in a row, and Lotte Giants, who failed to advance to the fall baseball game for the fifth consecutive season, are showing conflicting appearances at the beginning of this season.
Lotte recently won 7 consecutive wins and took 3rd place, but kt fell into a swamp of 7 consecutive losses and fell to 9th place.
Lotte will challenge Kiwoom Heroes at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 29th to win 8 consecutive victories in 13 years. On the other hand, if kt loses to the Samsung Lions at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the same day, it will fall into a swamp of 8 consecutive losses in 4 years.
Lotte won seven games, starting with a 5-3 victory against the KIA Tigers on the 20th. It has been about 10 years and 10 months since Lotte won 7 consecutive victories against the Hanwha Eagles on June 28, 2012.
Now, Lotte is challenging 8 consecutive wins, which they have not experienced for 13 years.
If you win against Kiwoom on this day, you will succeed in 8 consecutive wins for the first time since the match against Hanwha on June 12, 2010.
Lotte ran the winning streak with strong firepower 13 years ago. Son Ah-seop (currently NC Dinos), Cho Seong-hwan, Hong Seong-heun, Lee Dae-ho, Karim Garcia, Kang Min-ho (currently Samsung Lions), and Jeon Jun-woo showed a fearsome side with hard hitters at the fore.
This year, the bullpen is on the rise. Lotte had a team average ERA of 2.11 during the 7-game winning streak. This means that they did not concede an average of 3 points per game.
Lotte’s bullpen pitchers showed great performance.
Kim Sang-soo and Kim Won-joong played in 5 games during this period and did not give up a single point, and Choi Jun-yong, Kim Jin-wook and Koo Seung-min also scored in 4 games.
Right-handed pitcher Na Kyun-ahn, who has emerged as an ace this season, has shown excellent results, allowing two runs in 15 innings in the two games he started.
Before Kiwoom on the 29th, Han Hyun-hee, a transfer student, will be selected.
Hyunhee Han is grinding her teeth. He received harsh evaluations, such as being eliminated from the postseason entry last year while playing for Kiwoom.
The same was true even after the 2022 season ended. Kiwoom did not pay attention to Han Hyun-hee, who had been qualified as a free agent (FA).
In the end, Han Hyun-hee belatedly signed a contract with Lotte. He also drew attention by revealing at his joining press conference, “I never want to lose before Kiwoom. I will win unconditionally.”
It is the first time that Hyun-hee Han has appeared before Kiwoom.
Coincidentally, Kiwoom’s starting pitcher on this day is Jeong Chan-heon. Jeong Chan-heon, like Han Hyun-hee last year, also wandered in the free agent market after being eliminated from the postseason entry.
Jeong Chan-heon signed a contract with Kiwoom on the 27th of last month, just before the opening, to avoid being lost.
On this day, an exciting match will be held in Suwon. kt is struggling to escape the 7th consecutive loss against the Samsung Lions.
Since the match against SSG Landers on the 20th, kt has lost 7 matches in a row with 1 draw and 7 losses in the last 8 matches.
If kt loses against Samsung on the 29th, it will suffer 8 consecutive losses in about 4 years after the LG Twins on May 2, 2019.
KT is having a hard time this season due to line injuries of key players.
Bae Jeong-dae and Hwang Jae-gyun were left out in the other lineup, and So-jun So, Joo-kwon and Kim Min-soo left the mound.
Recently, even the remaining key players are experiencing a slump. Foreign pitcher Wes Benjamin has been sluggish with an ERA of 8.22 in his recent three starts.ㅋㅋㅋ벳
It is also difficult to line up. If you look at the batting average of the last 5 games of the main fielders, you can guess how serious the atmosphere of kt is recently.
Lead hitter Kang Baek-ho is 0.150, starting catcher Jang Seong-woo is 0.105, and 2022 season home run king Park Byeong-ho is 0.176.
For kt, raising the heavy team atmosphere is an urgent priority.
On the 28th, kt called coach Yuhan-jun to the 1st team and sent coach Joong-geun to the 2nd team to refresh the atmosphere ahead of the Samsung game, but it did not have much effect.
At the end of the 8th inning, where the loss was 0-8, kt seemed to turn the game around dramatically, scoring 8 points, but lost 9-10 after a bloody battle in the 10th overtime.