Lotte Giants’ “Lucky Foreigner” Victor Reyes (29) became a hero who saved his team from a three-game losing streak.토토사이트
At the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League LG Twins match held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Sunday, Reyes hit the finishing hit in the top of the 10th inning to lead Lotte to a 2-1 victory. After recovering from its three consecutive losses, Lotte struggled to revive hope for fall baseball.
Lotte’s “Elotrasico” between the two teams was a duel of pitchers. The two teams only garnered one run each during the regular innings. LG opened the game with Hong Chang-ki’s grounder to the second base with no outs in the bottom of the third inning. Lotte balanced the game with Park Seung-wook’s tying solo home run in the top of the fifth inning.
The starting pitchers of both teams stood out. Aaron Wilkerson pitched seven ⅔ innings, allowing four hits, striking out four, and losing no points. LG Twins’ starting pitcher Lim Chan-kyu also tightly sealed the Lotte lineup by allowing six hits, four strikeouts, and one run in six innings.
The game between Lotte and LG, which failed to secure a win until the ninth inning, continued into overtime. At the top of the 10th inning, Lotte had a chance to come from behind. Shin Yoon-hoo and Yoon Dong-hee were out, but Ko Seung-min’s walk and Son Ho-young’s hits gave them a good chance to hit first and third bases with two outs.
Reyes entered the batter’s box at a critical moment and played 100 percent of the role of the cleanup hitter. He pulled LG’s fifth pitcher Lee Jong-joon’s fastball of 146 km/h on the sixth pitch, making a timely hit to the right. As third baseman Ko Seung-min stepped home, Lotte scored a golden point.
In the bottom of the 10th inning, closer Kim Won-joong had a left-handed hit by leadoff hitter Park Dong-won, but Lee Young-bin struck out three times. Choi Seung-min, a pinch runner, was out while trying to steal second base, resulting in two outs. Park Hae-min walked to get on base, but Kim Won-joong turned Koo Bon-hyuk into a fly to second base to end the game.
After escaping from three consecutive losses by winning the game against LG, Lotte maintained its eighth place with 58 wins, 66 losses and four draws (winning rate of 0.468). Lotte narrowed its gap with fifth-ranked Doosan Bears (65 wins, 66 losses, two draws, winning rate of 0.496) to 3.5 games, but it has a long way to go, and has continued its glimmer of hope for fall baseball.
Reyes, who had two hits in five at-bats on the 10th, solidified his position as the single most hits. At this pace, he can arithmetically make 203 hits when he has played all 144 games, which could set a new record for the most hits (201 hits) in a single season in the KBO League.
Reyes, who joined Lotte ahead of this season, is faithfully playing his role as a key hitter of his team. Although he has a batting average of 0.354 with 14 homers and 98 RBIs in 128 games and an OPS of 0.908, he is ranking second in batting average, No. 1 in hits, No. 7 in RBIs, and No. 8 in OPS. Notably, Reyes, who is ranking fifth in the batting average (0.382) in the league, proved his value with a golden hit in the game against LG.