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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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[Taipei (Taiwan) = Sports Chosun Reporter Kim Young-rok] It was a disappointing loss. It was a bit early to play a practice game, but we fought well.
The Lotte Giants lost 3-4 in the first round of a friendly match against Taiwan's WBC (World Baseball Classic) national team at Taipei Dome on the 12th.
Overall, it was a match that showed the difference between Taiwanese players, who have already improved their physical condition in time for the WBC qualifying round, which begins on the 21st, and Lotte players, who are still heavy.
Still, as the score difference of one point showed, Lotte players' fighting power stood out. Starter Park Se-woong already showed off his ace-like presence by spraying up to 147km of fastballs even in mid-February. Hwang Sung-bin, Yoon Dong-hee, Na Seung-yeop, and Reyes made cool hits with a fierce batting sense, pleasing fans.
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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An opportunity to look into manager Kim Tae-hyung's inner thoughts on the team's management at the beginning of the season, including the opening game of this season. Lotte set up a starting lineup with Park Se-woong in the first round and Kim Jin-wook in the second round. With foreign pitchers Charlie Barnes and Tucker Davidson taking a break, the decision seems to have been made until the fourth starter.
On this day, Lotte played in the lineup of Hwang Sung-bin (center fielder), Na Seung-yeop (first base), Son Ho-young (third base), Reyes (left wing), Yoon Dong-hee (right wing), Jeon Joon-woo (designated hitter), Park Seung-wook (striker), Information-geun (catcher), and Jeon Min-jae (second base). With Reyes in left field, Hwang Sung-bin returned to center field and Yoon Dong-hee to right field. It is notable that Na Seung-yeop, who has a good batting eye and on-base percentage, was placed in the clean-up trio at No. 2 and Yoon Dong-hee at No. 5. Jeon Min-jae stepped up to second base without Ko Seung-min. As Han Tae-yang and Lee Ho-joon are all young players, experienced Jeon Min-jae stepped up first.
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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On this day, Taipei Dome opened up about 20,000 seats, excluding outfield and seats on the third floor or higher, and more than 17,000 seats were sold, showing Taiwan's hot baseball fever. Lotte also bought game tickets for domestic baseball-hungry fans and showed sincerity in broadcasting them through Giants TV.
In the first round of the workshop, both teams are out. Lotte scored the first run in the top of the second inning with a timely RBI hit by Information Geun falling in front of the right field with two outs and runners on the first and second bases. On this day, Taiwan immediately replaced the pitcher whenever he lost a point, showing off a fierce atmosphere of preparation for the actual game.
Taiwan's counterattack in the bottom of the second inning. Park Se-woong made an impressive pitch by throwing a heavy fastball of up to 147km, but allowed Chun Zhihao to hit in the bottom of the second inning. Two outs later, he allowed Unienting to tie the game with an RBI double in left-center. Still, he defended well without additional runs.
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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Lotte took the lead again in the top of the third inning with Reyes hitting an RBI double on the right-field line with two outs and a second base made by Hwang Sung-bin's hit and Na Seung-yeop's infield ground ball.
Lotte checked its condition by putting in Park Joon-woo in the bottom of the third inning, Chung Hyun-soo after two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Na Kyun-an in the bottom of the fifth inning. In the meantime, he overcame the crisis well with one out, first and second bases, and second and third bases with two outs.
However, following a hit by leadoff hitter Cheon Won-ji in the bottom of the sixth inning, Unienting and Kaowizier hit a series of doubles, leading to a 2-3 reversal.
Taiwan's next batter, Lin Zhiwei, buntted at second base with no outs, showing a strong commitment to victory. With the bases loaded with one out, Lin Chi-Away hit a grounder to the second base against Han Hyun-hee, and the third baseman homered, making it 2-4.
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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Lotte continued its bullpen test by putting in Han Hyun-hee and Jung Cheol-won, while recovering one run with Son Ho-young's double play in the first and third bases with no outs made by Hwang Sung-bin and Na Seung-yeop's consecutive hits in the top of the eighth inning.
However, in the top of the ninth inning, Han Tae-yang stepped down again with a double play on the first and second bases with no outs made by Yoon Dong-hee's hit and Jeon Jun-woo's hit, and Park Gun-woo stepped down with a mistake and lost unfortunately.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
