Strong in Late Innings, Doosan Riding Nine-Game Winning Streak

During the last three years, Lotte had only one player win an award. That player was Lim Gyung-wan, who won the award for most holds last year. This year, however, Lotte players who used to be sidekicks for award ceremonies might now take the spotlight.

Although it is early in the season, Lotte players are topping the charts in most categories.

Lotte’s foreign batter, Kit Pellow, and new-age slugger Lee Dae-ho, both hit their eighth homeruns of the season in Kwangju against Kia on May 8, making them co-leaders in the homerun category with Hyundai’s Lee Seung-yong.

With one out in the second inning, Pellow, who played his first game for Lotte on April 20 as a replacement for another foreign player, hit a 135-meter-long outside-the-park homerun and showed off his slugging by hitting eight homeruns in just 14 games. That is an average of 0.57 homeruns per game, and if he keeps his current pace, by the end of the season he will have 62 homeruns, surpassing former Samsung player Lee Seung-yup’s Asian record of 56, set back in 2003. Lee Dae-ho, who also hit a ball out of the park, has 33 RBI, the sole leader in that category.

As for pitching, Lotte’s starter Lee Yong-hoon struck out three, bringing up his strikeout total to 44 and pushing Samsung’s Bae Young-soo with 43 to second place.

In Jamsil Stadium, Doosan was trailing Hyundai 1-5 in the third inning, but scored four runs with four hits and one base on balls in the bottom of the third, and won the game 6-5. Riding a nine-game winning streak for the first time in five years since 2000, Doosan stands first in the league and will aim for a team-record tying 10-game-winning-streak against Samsung at Daegu on May 10.

In Daegu, Samsung started their two-game winning streak by beating Hanhwa 7-2 thanks to Yang Joon-hyuk and Jin Gap-yong, who went 2-for-5 with two RBI, and 3-for-3, respectively. Starting pitcher Lim Chang-yong pitched six innings, gave up a single run, and won the game to bring his record to 3-2.

In the minor leagues, the Korea Military Team’s Koh Woo-seok (21) threw a no hit, no run performance against Hyundai. Koh, who played for Kia and joined the army last November, faced 30 batters during nine innings, allowed no hits, no runs, struck out eight, had two base on balls, and hit one batter. The Korea Military Team won the game, 7-0.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com