Park Se-Woong 6 innings, 3 runs, 9 hits, 9 strikeouts, QS record
4-0 → 4-3 → 4-6 → 6-6 →6-7 Loss
Won-Joong Kim, hit by a pitch in the eighth inning, allowed the tying run to score.

An exhilarating sweep was followed by a stinging sweep loss.

The Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) dropped their third straight game after winning four in a row, taking a step back from the top five. The Giants dropped their third straight game against the 10th-ranked Kiwoom Heroes, which came on the heels of a three-game win streak against the SSG Landers.

Lotte suffered a 6-7 upset loss in the 14th game of the season against Kiwoom at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Tuesday. Lotte failed to capitalize on a 4-0 lead early in the game and fell behind to Kiwoom.

Lotte got off to a good start, scoring a run in the first inning. Lee Jung-hoon led off with a single to center field. The fourth batter, Ahn Chi-hong, followed with a double down the right field line to bring Lee home for a 1-0 lead.

Lotte tacked on two more runs in the second inning. Lee Jung-hoon, who scored in the first inning, had an RBI single this time. LOTTE loaded the bases with singles by Park Seung-wook in the seventh, Lee Jung-geun in the eighth, and Bae Young-bin in the ninth. Ahn Kwon-soo and Kim Min-seok walked, but Lee Jung-hoon hit a clean single to right-center field to bring home Park Seung-wook and Shin Jung-geun. Lotte took a 3-0 lead after Lee’s RBI double.

LOTTE starter Park Se-woong gave up his first run in the bottom of the third inning. After giving up a walk to Lim Byung-wook in the eighth, he allowed a single to Kim Xiang in the ninth with catcher Shin Jung-geun at the plate, putting runners on first and third with no outs. Park Se-woong gave up a single to Kim Jun-wan in the first for the first run.

Lotte added a run in the fourth inning to extend its lead over Kiwoom. Bae Young-bin, who led off the fourth inning, hit a confident double to the back of the left field wall. Following a sacrifice bunt by Ahn Chi-hong, Kim Min-seok laid down a big outfield sacrifice fly to bring Bae home. Lotte took a 4-1 lead.

Kiwoom rallied in the bottom of the fourth. Kiwoom pulled to within 4-3 when Lim Byung-wook hit a two-run home run over the right field fence off Park Se-woong in the eighth inning.

LOTTE eventually gave up the lead to Kiwoom in the bottom of the seventh inning. Lotte starter Park Se-woong was replaced by Kim Sang-soo after allowing three runs, four hits and nine strikeouts through six innings. LOTTE’s first batter, Kim Tae-jin, reached on a fielding error by second baseman Park Seung-wook. Lim Byung-wook followed with a single to put runners on first and second with no outs. Kiung laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on first and second.

Kim Sang-soo gave up an outfield sacrifice fly to Kim Jun-wan, followed by back-to-back RBI singles to Kim Hye-sung and Dawson. Lotte was down 4-6.

Lotte tied the game with two runs in the top of the eighth. LOTTE had a scoring opportunity in the top of the eighth when pinch-hitter Jung Hoon drew a walk to load the bases. In the eighth, Lee Jung-geun singled to right-center field to bring Jung-hoon home and cut the deficit to 5-6, one run. LOTTE had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth when Bae Young-bin walked to load the bases. Jeon Jun-woo, who came in to pinch-hit for Ahn Kwon-soo, hit an infield grounder to bring home Ko Seung-min, who was pinch-running for Lee Jung-geun, to tie the game at 6-6. LOTTE was unable to capitalize as Kim Min-seok and Lee Jung-hoon were retired on a strikeout and a fly ball to left field in the ensuing scoring situation.

LOTTE fell behind again to Kiwoom in the bottom of the eighth. Koo Seung-min, who took the mound after Kim Sang-soo, gave up a walk to Lee Yong-kyu, the eighth’s leadoff hitter. He struck out Lee Ju-hyung, but gave up singles to Kim Tae-jin and Lim Byung-wook to load the bases.

LOTTE manager Larry Sutton sent Kim Won-joong to the mound with the bases loaded. Kim gave up a hard-hit ball to the first batter, No. 9 Kim Dong-heon, to cut the deficit to 6-7. Kim Won-joong got out of the jam by striking out No. 1 Kim Jun-wan. Kim then faced Kim Hye-sung and induced a fly ball to left field to keep the game scoreless.스포츠토토

Lotte attempted a comeback in the top of the ninth. However, Ahn Chi-hong, Yoon Dong-hee, and Lee Hak-joo were retired on an outfield grounder, a strikeout, and an infield grounder, respectively, leaving the game at 6-7.

Lotte won four straight games, including a three-game sweep of SSG, to narrow their win-loss margin to ‘-1’, but a third straight loss against Kiwoom pushed their win-loss margin back down to ‘-4’. Lotte finished seventh with 50 wins and 54 losses.