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The Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) 온라인카지노 hung their heads in shame after failing to advance to fall baseball again this season.
The team went 0-7 against the LG Twins on Tuesday at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. This means that Lotte will be eliminated from the postseason regardless of the outcome of the remaining five regular season games.
It’s a disappointing result.
Lotte made a splash heading into the season with an unconventional roster. They signed homegrown ace Park Se-woong to a long-term contract worth up to 9 billion won ($8.5 million) over five years and actively pursued outside free agents.
In particular, Lotte, which had been criticized for its weakness in the catcher position, secured Yoo Kang-nam from LG for 4 years and 8 billion won, and then signed Noh Jin-hyuk (4 years, 5 billion won) and Han Hyun-hee (3+1 years, 4 billion won). The total amount of money spent on the four players was 26 billion won, overturning the assessment that Lotte had been passive in the free agency market.
Lotte’s early momentum was unstoppable.
Lotte ended April in sole possession of first place with a 5-3 home win over Kiwoom at Sajik Stadium on April 30.
Of course, there were still doubters. Lotte was already nicknamed “Bomde” for being good at baseball only in the spring. But the team’s momentum didn’t slow down until May 19.
However, in June, the slump continued and the team began to plummet in the standings. After a three-game sweep of KT in early June, Lotte fell into a four-game losing streak for the first time this season, followed by five consecutive losing series against Samsung, Hanwha, SSG, and KT.
The team made a series of midseason moves to replace knee-injured foreign hitter Jack Rex and struggling foreign pitcher Dan Streeley, but it didn’t work. Lotte dropped to sixth place after losing to the Gwangju Kia on July 28 and hasn’t climbed above the top five since.
After finishing third in the 2017 regular season and making the semi-playoffs, Lotte has been a spectator in fall baseball for six straight years.
Of the 10 teams in the KBO, Lotte is the team that hasn’t played fall baseball for the longest time. Even Hanwha, a perennial bottom-feeder, made it to the postseason in 2018, so they’re still newer to the game than Lotte.
Expanding the scope a bit further, in the 11 seasons between 2013 and this year, Lotte has been in the postseason only once, in 2017.
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