KT Wiz has won three straight games to move up to ninth place in the standings. Ko Young-pyo showed off his ‘nemesis’ side and the batting lineup showed off their focus.

KT won 4-1 against the Lotte Giants in the regular season of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Sajik Stadium in Busan on June 6. With the win, KT improved to 19-30-2 with a three-game winning streak. They moved from the bottom of the standings to a tie for ninth place with Hanwha. Lotte lost its second straight game to fall to 29-20.

KT capitalized on two chances. In the top of the second, Jang Jang-woo walked and Hwang Jae-gyun singled to left to put runners on first and second. Lee Ho-yeon, who was traded from Lotte, followed with a single up the middle. With nobody out and runners on first and third, Bae Ji-dae scored on a sacrifice fly to right field. They took a 2-0 lead.

Lotte shot themselves in the foot when they had a chance against their “nemesis,” Ko Young-pyo. They had runners on base but stranded them. In the bottom of the second inning, Yoon Dong-hee singled to left but was stranded at second base. In the bottom of the third inning, leadoff hitter Yoo Kang-nam singled up the middle, but Park Seung-wook’s bases-loaded single threw cold water on that.

Lotte finally got one run back in the sixth inning. This was actually a disappointing score compared to expectations. Leadoff hitter Yoo Kang-nam led off with a single over the left field fence and Park Seung-wook drew a walk. With runners on first and second, a sacrifice bunt by Hwang Sung-bin put runners on first and third, and a wild pitch brought in a run. However, they were unable to capitalize as Jeon Jun-woo grounded out to shortstop and Rex grounded out to third.

KT immediately scored the go-ahead run. In the seventh inning, Hwang Jae-gyun led off with a single to right, followed by a walk to Lee Ho-yeon, a sacrifice bunt by Bae Jeong-dae, and a single by Jang Jun-won. Kim Min-hyuk drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 3-1, but no more runs were scored 안전놀이터.

Then, in the top of the ninth, they drove a wedge into the game. Leadoff hitter Park Kyung-soo reached on an error by the third baseman and pinch runner Lee Sang-ho stole second. Lee was thrown out at third on a grounder to the shortstop, but Jang Jun-won singled to right to put runners on first and third, and Kim Min-hyuk followed with a single to left to seal the deal.

Starter Ko Young-pyo’s seven innings of one-run, four-hit ball with three strikeouts and one walk, and the bullpen of Park Young-hyun and Kim Jae-yoon sealed the deal and completed the three-game sweep.

Lotte got a quality start from Park Se-woong, who threw six innings of 103 pitches with three hits, three walks, seven strikeouts and two runs. However, the batting lineup was silent against “nemesis” Ko Young-pyo and the bullpen gave up run after run.

There were 23,331 fans in attendance at Sajik Stadium, but Ko silenced them with his pitching.