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| A game between LG and Lotte at Jamsil Stadium on the 20th. Manager Kim Tae-hyung is watching the players' training. Jamsil = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.08.20/ |
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| A game between LG and Lotte at Jamsil Stadium on the 20th. LG won against Lotte. Lotte players leave the ground after the game. Jamsil = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.08.20/ |
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Only two weeks were enough to fall from heaven to hell. The top three spot, which had been maintained for 71 days, collapsed like sand in a nightmare of 10 consecutive losses.
The Lotte Giants lost 3-5 against the LG Twins in Jamsil on the 20th. Reyes set the tone by shooting a come-from-behind three-run home run in the early stages, and starter Na Kyun-an pitched hard with three runs in five ⅔ innings, but it was far from winning.
Foreign pitcher Davison's 10th win of the season against the KIA Tigers on the 6th is still his last win of the season. That's why the joke 'Davidson's curse' feels more and more real. Starting with the loss against KIA on the 7th, SSG Landers (2 losses), Hanwha Eagles (3 consecutive losses), Samsung Lions (2 losses, 1 draw), and LG Twins (2 losses), they have lost for two weeks without winning.
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| A game between LG and Lotte at Jamsil Stadium on the 20th. Lotte's Na Kyun-an, who is pitching as a starter. Jamsil = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.08.20/ |
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Lotte fell to fourth place as Lotte lost and SSG won. For Lotte, after several ups and downs, it will fall below the top three for the first time in 71 days since June 11th, when it ranked third.
At that time, Lotte dreamed of the Korean Series and recruited Velazquez instead of Davison, who had a clear high point. He is a tough veteran with 38 major league wins, but he took a full year off last year due to an elbow injury and stayed in Triple-A again this year, so it was a big risk choice. Lotte's recruitment of Velazquez was not just an autumn baseball, but a gambler who looked beyond that and even the Korean Series.
However, Velazquez still seems to have a hard time adjusting to Korean baseball. The maximum 152km fastball and various breaking balls are certainly worth seeing, but they are not showing their ace-like appearance. In his first appearance, he was sluggish with five runs in three innings and three runs in five innings in his second appearance.
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| Lotte's starting pitcher Velazquez is pitching hard in a game between Lotte and LG at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on the 19th.Jamsil= Reporter's book@sportschosun.comm/2025.08.19/ |
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Lotte's 10th consecutive win is the first in 22 years since 2003. In 2003, Lotte was last out of eight clubs. Lotte won only 30% (39 wins, 91 losses and 3 draws) in the year when it played 133 games. It is a team that is used to losing and losing consecutively was a daily occurrence.
That year, the head coach was Baek In-cheon, the former head coach. He led the LG Twins to the championship in the first year of its foundation and succeeded in rebuilding the Samsung Lions' lineup at once, but Lotte's days deserve to be called a dark history.
It was a stain on his brilliant leadership career, as he pushed for the trade of ace Son Min-han and ordered Lee Dae-ho and Choi Joon-seok, who later became the center of the team's lineup, to lose too much weight and then suffered a knee injury. Former manager Baek In-cheon's victory rate during his time at Lotte (he was appointed midway through the 2002 season and was dismissed midway through the 2003 season) was 41 wins and 122 losses (25.51 percent), and he was eventually dismissed during the season in August 2003.
Like a legend, 69 of the paid spectators at the Sajik Stadium were set at the end of 2002 when former coach Baek In-cheon was in office. At that time, the Lotte club held an event that allowed free admission just by bringing Lotte uniforms or hats, but the actual audience was less than 200, including paid visitors.
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| Former Lotte coach Baek In-cheon. Sports Chosun DB |
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For the first year of the 2003 season, Lotte lost 15 consecutive games in the middle of the season following the opening 12 consecutive losses. Lotte's losing 15 consecutive games was the day former coach Baek In-cheon was replaced.
Manager Kim Tae-hyung is the only player in the history of professional baseball to advance to the Korean Series for seven consecutive years (three wins). He appeared splendidly as Lotte's savior at the end of 2023 and raised Lotte to the top by showing off his masterly appearance this season after breathing and rebuilding last year.
However, he fell into a swamp of unexpected losing streaks. Lotte showed the best performance in the last eight years, and in a moment, it was a cheeky fate comparable to former coach Baek In-cheon, who is the worst head coach in history.
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| Lotte and Samsung held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 17th. Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung is watching the game. Busan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.08.17/ |
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
