The Lotte Giants had a late series of runs on Friday to prevail over the Doosan Bears 8-4, moving the Busan squad up to sixth place in the KBO. The win was the first of a weekend series hosted by the Bears at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.
The game saw no scoring in the second half, with the Bears striking first in the sixth. The eighth was big for the Giants, as the team scored seven runs including a grand slam.
Bears Get Ahead
Both starting pitchers had good starts, not allowing any runs for the first five innings. While Giants starter Park Se-woong allowed runs late in his appearance, Bears starter Lee Young-ha experienced no issues in his six-inning stint.
Park give up three runs in the sixth inning, putting the Bears in a preliminary lead. The scoring started with a hit from Oh Jae-il that brought in a runner. After that, a sacrifice fly from both Choi Joo-hwan and Hur Kyoung-min took in a run each to make the game 3-0. Park was pulled from the game early in the seventh after allowing another hit.
After a three-batter stint from reliever Lee In-bok, Giants pitcher Han Seung-hyuk joined the game in the seventh inning. Against him, Jose Miguel Fernandez got a hit, scoring the fourth run for the home team.
Giants Take Lead With Monstrous Eighth
The Giants were able to take back the game in the eighth inning, scoring seven runs in the scenario. Bears reliever Park Chi-guk started the inning, although he was pulled after facing three batters. The final batter that Park faced was An Chi-hong, who drove home the first run off of a hit.
Next came in Hong Gun-hee, who faced five batters. His stint started with a sacrifice fly from Kim Joon-tae that brought home a run. After loading up the bases, Hong gave up a grand slam home run to Jeon Jun-woo, who gave the Giants a 6-4 lead. Hong was handed his second loss of season in his 33rd appearance of 2020.
Before the inning concluded, a fielder’s choice play against Dixon Machado brought home the final run of the inning. The play came against the third and final pitcher to appear in the inning, Yoon Myung-jun.
Tallying one more run for the Giants, Kim Joon-tae shot a solo home run into right field in the ninth inning against Chae Ji-sun.
Giants Move To Sixth
With their third win this week, the Giants moved up to sixth in the KBO, now tied with the KT Wiz, who have a 38-35 record as well. The Giants are set to play two more games in Seoul this week versus the Bears, with Saturday’s game starting at 6:00PM KST (5:00AM EDT).
Around The KBO
Bouncing back from a rough loss in his last appearance, Samsung Lions starter David Buchanan got a shutout performance against the SK Wyverns, allowing only three hits through seven innings. The Lions won 2-0 in the end.
Casey Kelley had a good start as well, allowing two runs through seven innings when playing for the LG Twins on Friday, who defeated the Kiwoom Heroes 5-2.
Two games were rained out on Friday. In Gwangju, a game between the NC Dinos and the Kia Tigers were rained out. Over at Daejeon, rain prevented a game between the KT Wiz and the Hanhwa Eagles as well.
JackWannan.com 