The Lotte Giants were swept by the KIA Tigers as their bullpen collapsed in front of a packed 22,990-seat crowd.
Lotte fell 0-6 in their home game against KIA in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Sajik Stadium in Busan on Thursday. They were tied 0-0 through five innings, but surrendered six runs in the top of the sixth inning to lose the game.
The loss ended a three-game sweep for third-place Lotte, which had swept KIA on the 2nd and 3rd. They fell to 29-19 on the season. Starting pitcher Han Hyun-hee, who gave up two runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts in five innings, suffered his fifth loss of the season.메이저놀이터
Sixth-placed KIA improved to 23-24, setting the stage for a mid-table rebound. Starting pitcher Lee Yi-ri earned his fifth win of the season (3-3) with five innings of two-hit ball, four walks and eight strikeouts.
Lotte had runners in scoring position in the third and fifth innings, but starting pitcher Han Hyun-hee was able to keep them off the board.
He got Ryu Ji-hyuk to ground into an infield single and Ko Jong-wook to strike out in the top of the third inning, got Lee Woo-sung to ground out with runners on first and second in the top of the fourth, and got Ryu Ji-hyuk to fly out to right field with two outs in the top of the fifth.
Han Hyun-hee faltered in the top of the sixth. He gave up back-to-back singles to Jong-wook Ko and Socrates Brito to give up the first run.
With the balance off, Lotte manager Larry Sutton quickly called upon his bullpen. Han Hyun-hee threw 79 pitches in his first appearance in five days after throwing 93 pitches against the LG Twins in Jamsil on 30 May.
Prior to that game, Lotte had a weekly bullpen ERA of 2.08 (3 runs in 13 innings), which ranked third out of 10 clubs. However, they showed signs of anxiety in the three games, twice failing to protect a one-run lead.
For the second straight day, Lotte’s bullpen got blown out. After Han Hyun-hee was sent down, the bullpen collapsed against the KIA batting order.
Kim Jin-wook, who came on in relief with no outs, gave up a single to Choi Hyung-woo and a bunt single to Kim Sun-bin before being removed without recording a single out.
Kim Do-gyu took over and immediately gave up a double to Lee Woo-sung, and after a sacrifice bunt by Shin Bum-soo, Kim gave up another single to Kim Kyu-sung.
Choi struck out Choi Jeong-yong to end the inning, but back-to-back singles from Ryu Ji-hyuk and Park Chan-ho followed. The score widened to 0-6.
Yoon Myung-joon, who took the mound as Lotte’s fourth pitcher, walked Socrates to load the bases, but induced Choi Hyung-woo to ground out to second base to end the inning.
In the top of the sixth inning, KIA broke the Lotte mound with six runs as 12 batters combined for eight hits, including three doubles, one walk, one sacrifice bunt and one stolen base.
The LOTTE bats didn’t help the mound with a frustrating performance either. Noh Jin-hyuk, the hero of the previous day’s walk-off hit, struck out with runners on second and third in the fourth inning, while Yoon Dong-hee and Jeon Jun-woo were silent with runners on first and second in the fifth.