The Lotte Giants defended their early lead and held off the Doosan Bears. Lotte won a 4-3 home game against Doosan at Sajik Stadium on Thursday. They avenged a 0-3 loss the previous day (March 3).
The game was scheduled to be played on the previous two days but was canceled due to rain. It was the first Monday game since the start of the season.
Lotte added a valuable point to its record, moving to 52 wins and 59 losses. Doosan remained in sixth place with 55 wins, one draw and 55 losses. Seventh-place Lotte cut the gap between them and Doosan to 3.5 games.
Doosan jumped out to an early lead in the first inning, as Jung Soo-bin hit a solo home run off Lotte starter Park Se-woong. With the leadoff home run (his fourth of the season, 293rd of his KBO career, and fourth of his career), Jeong also reached 800 career runs (48th in KBO history).
Lotte fought back immediately and turned the game around. In the bottom of the first inning, Lee Jung-hoon, Ahn Chi-hong, and Jeon Jun-woo hit consecutive singles off Doosan starter Raul Alcantara to load the bases.
The next batter, Jung-hoon, was retired on an infield fly to second base, but the next batter, Niko Gudrum, hit a two-run double to make it 2-1.
Lee Jung-geun drew a walk to load the bases again. Noh Jin-hyuk came to the plate and swung at a three-pitch pitch from Alcantara for a single up the middle. Jeon Jun-woo and Goodrum came home to extend Lotte’s lead to 4-1.
LOTTE continued to miss opportunities to add to their lead, and Doosan capitalized. In the top of the fourth, LOTTE scored a run on a fielding error, and in the top of the fifth, Kim In-tae hit an RBI single to make it 3-4.
But the Doosan chase was over. Lotte was able to play “protective baseball. Park Se-woong left the game after only 4.1 innings, but the next three pitchers, Choi Jun-yong, Koo Seung-min, and Kim Sang-soo, held the Doosan bats scoreless.
Jeon Jun-woo and Yoon Dong-hee helped out defensively by picking off hit batters. In the top of the ninth, LOTTE brought in closer Kim Won-joong to close the door.
He walked leadoff hitter Jung Soo-bin and gave up a single to Jose Rojas to put runners on first and second with no 토토사이트 outs, but struck out Yang Seok-hwan, flied out to left field, and retired Kim Jae-ho, who was batting in place of Cho Sun-sung, on a strikeout to end the game.
Choi Jun-yong picked up his second win of the season (1-8) in relief, while Kim Won-joong earned his 25th save of the season (5-4). Alcantara did his job with seven innings of four-run ball, but took the loss to fall to 6-11 on the season.
Jun-woo Jeon led the Lotte offense with three hits, one walk and four RBIs. Lotte begins a three-game midweek series against the Samsung Lions at Munsu Stadium in Ulsan on April 5 and the KIA Tigers at Jamsil Stadium on April 6.