The joy of his first win did not last long. Lotte Giants left-hander Jung Hyun-soo (23), who hails from the strongest baseball league, tasted the bitter taste of his first loss.스포츠토토
Chung took the mound as a starting pitcher at a home game against KT Wiz of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on Saturday, and had three hits, three walks, two strikeouts and three runs during the first ⅔. Lotte lost 2-12 due to sluggishness in its bullpen pitcher lineup, which took the mound after Chung.
Chung Hyun-soo, who enjoyed his first win in the first division with five innings of one hit, one walk, six strikeouts and no runs against the Gocheok Kiwoom Heroes on August 30, the previous appearance, completely collapsed in the first start game in six days.
His ball control was in trouble from the start. Out of five pitches he threw in the top of the first inning, Mel Rojas Jr. became a strike with a swing and miss, while the other four became balls, allowing him to walk on base. Kim Min-hyuk then walked straight, shaking significantly.
Chung, who was on the verge of hitting the second and third bases with one out due to Jang’s sacrifice bunt, struck out the rookie with a fastball of 137 km/h after a close game with Moon going all the way to the seventh pitch. However, he lost his zero point again and gave up a straight walk to Kang.
With the bases loaded with two outs, Chung preempted the count in favor of 0-2 against Bae Jeong-dae, but allowed a timely hit to the left as the 118km/h curve did not fall properly on the third pitch. Two runners homered, and Hwang Sung-bin, a left fielder, made a throwing error, leading to a crisis with two outs and runners on the second and third bases. Chung drew a check swing against Kim Sang-soo after four pitches, and managed the first inning with a hard time by striking out swinging.
In the top of the second inning, Jung Hyun-soo allowed a double by hitting a fastball on the third pitch with a 0-2 advantage against leadoff hitter Yoon Joon-hyuk. Shim Woo-joon’s sacrifice bunt then drove him to the third base with one out, and gave up the third point after Rojas hit a timely hit to the right.
Chung allowed Kim Min-hyuk to hit a ground ball with one out and runners on first, but second baseman Ko Seung-min chased and caught the ball to the end before connecting it to shortstop who came in with the base cover on second base to catch the leadoff runner. Helped by stellar defense, Chung posted his second out count, but the Lotte bench was no longer watching. Han Hyun-hee was put in with two outs and runners on first base, and Chung came down the mound after 37 pitches.
Han Hyun-hee, who took over the mound, stopped Chung Hyun-soo’s successor without losing a point, but shook sharply in the third inning and recorded three hits and three runs in ⅔ innings. Park Jin-jin (six hits and four runs in two ⅔ innings) also showed sluggish performance. Kim Kang-hyun cleared two scoreless innings, but Lotte lost helplessly by 10 points as he failed to block KT’s batters until Lee Min-seok (four hits and two runs in two innings), who took the mound last time.
Lotte, which continues its hope for fall baseball, had hoped for Chung Hyeon-su, who had been playing well in the last game, but it was a bitter loss that he returned. It was even more hurt because it was a showdown with fifth-ranked KT (63 wins, 2 draws and 64 losses, 0.496 winning rate). Lotte, which failed to continue its comeback victory (7-5) on the 4th, lost its seventh place to SSG Landers (60 wins, 1 draw, 67 losses, 0.472) who escaped three consecutive losses on the same day, and fell back to eighth place (57 wins, 3 draws, 64 losses, 0.471).