The Lotte Giants, who took a long break due to rain, are trying to continue their upward trend, starting with the match against the Doosan Bears on the 9th. ‘Ace’ Dan Strayley takes on the heavy duty of starting pitcher.
On the 8th, Lotte will have three consecutive matches against the Doosan Bears at Sajik Stadium in Busan.
Lotte recently climbed to the top with a 9-game winning streak for the first time in 15 years. However, on the 3rd, they lost 2-10 to the KIA Tigers and fell to second place. After that, all 4 games scheduled from the 4th to the 7th were postponed due to rain, and they took a forced break without even having a chance to regain first place. While Lotte took a break, SSG Landers ran away by 2 games amid a 5-game winning streak.
Lotte will have 3 consecutive matches during the week against Doosan, who is losing 3 times in a row, and will face KT Wiz, who fell to the bottom on the weekend.
Strayley will take the mound as the first pitcher on the restarted schedule following the April 1 opener.
Unlike Lotte, which has been on the rise, Strayley has been sluggish all along. He failed to win a single game in his five appearances on the season. His season performance was 2 losses and an earned run average of 5.82. He never posted a quality start (less than 3 earned runs over 6 innings). For Lotte, Strayley’s sluggish performance is regrettable. Even if Strayley showed last year (11 games, 4 wins, 2 losses, 2.31 ERA), he might have been on the rise.
Lotte gave Strayley plenty of rest. Strayley’s most recent appearance was against the Hanwha Eagles on the 26th of last month, when he allowed 1 run on 1 hit in 3 innings. At that time, the early replacement was with the Kiwoom Heroes match on the 30th in mind, and as a result, Han Hyun-hee started the game that day.
The Lotte bench gave enough time to recover as the pitching below expectations continued. So, on May 4, against the KIA, Strayley was announced for the first time in 8 days. When this game was decided due to rain, no additional notice was given for Strayley’s start. In the end, while all Gyeonggi-do on the 5th and 7th were not held due to rain, Lotte tried to put Charlie Barnes on all three days.
Strayley had enough time to change the mood with the controller.
In order for Lotte to continue its upward trend, Strayley’s good fight to break his first start is desperately needed. Except for Na Gyun-an (4 wins, 1 loss, ERA 2.39), the average ERA of the rest of the Lotte starters is sluggish, reaching 6.56. As for Lotte, we hope that Strayley will be the vanguard to escape from the sluggish starting lineup. 안전놀이터
Against Strayley, Doosan will have its ace, Raul Alcantara, take the mound. He is 3-2 with an ERA of 1.80 in 6 games this season. In the opening match against Lotte on the 1st, he was sluggish with 6 hits, 4 walks and 4 runs in 4 innings.