A big seventh inning for the Lotte Giants helped them win a 7-6 Saturday night game over the LG Twins. The victory, which happened at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Korea, tied up their three-game series 1-1.
Four runs were scored in the seventh inning by the Giants, two of them off of a fielding error. The runs came against two relievers brought in by the Twins. The game saw a few lead changes, with Twins having a large lead at one point.
Early Runs Favour Twins
The runs started early, with a two-run home run from Jeon Jun-woo kicking off the festivities in the first inning for the Giants.
Answering back, the Twins were able to score later that inning off of a sacrifice fly from Hong Chang-gi
The Twins took the lead in the fourth inning after a successful few hits. First, an infield hit from Jeong Keun-woo gave shortshop Dixon Machado trouble, allowing a runner from third to score.
Koo Has Best Performance of His Career
After that, a three-run home run from Koo Bon-hyeok put the Twins ahead 5-2. Koo, the team’s 23-year-old third-baseman scored his first home run of the season, and only the second of his career.
Two innings later, Koo got on the board again, with a ground ball driving a runner home. The hit came against the first Giants reliever of the game Song Seun-jun. Koo finished the game with four RBIs, the most he has ever recorded in a game. The Twins were ahead 6-3 in the sixth
In the inning before, a sacrifice fly from Son Ah-seop scored a run for the Giants.
Seventh Inning Rally Gives Giants Game
Tigers pulled their starter Cha Woo-chan after six innings. The pitcher allowed three runs and hits, earning five strikeouts as well.
With the exit of Cha, the Giants got to work with a rally of runs against relievers. The sixth batter to face reliever Yeo Geon-wook was An Chi-hong, who brought in two runners off of a single to center field.
After throwing 31 pitches, Yeo was taken out of the game and replaced by Choi Dong-hwan. Two more runs came off of an error, as a throw from third passed the first baseman of the Tigers. If the ground ball was fielded correctly it would have been a third out, and the game wouldn’t move to the final score of 7-6.
The first of two relievers to appear in the inning, Yeo, was given the loss for the game.
Giants closer Kim Won-joong got his sixth save of the season, finishing the ninth inning after two hits and no runs scored.
Giants and Twins Continue Their Separate Battles
The Giants continued their battle for fifth place in the KBO, staying at sixth on Saturday as the fifth place team, the Kia Tigers, won their respective game that day too.
The Twins fell to third place, now half a game behind the second-ranked Doosan Bears. The Bears had their game against the Hanwha Eagles rained out.
The Twins and Giants meet one more time this week, with first pitch on their Sunday game starting at 5:00PM KST (4:00AM EDT).
Around The KBO
A low-scoring game saw the Kia Tigers defeat the SK Wyverns 2-1. Both starting pitchers went deep into the game.
A blowout win went to the Kiwoom Heroes, who beat the NC Dinos 18-5.
After rain delayed their Friday game, the KT Wiz and Samsung Lions played a double header on Saturday. The Wiz took a 7-4 victory, with the Lions winning a game 5-3.
The Doosan Bears had their 4-3 lead frozen in the third inning against the Hanhwa Eagles, as rained postponed the action to tomorrow.
JackWannan.com 