[Anchor]
League-leading Samsung defeated Lotte to extend its winning streak to seven games. Starting pitcher Choi Won-tae led the team to victory with a stellar performance, allowing two runs with ten strikeouts over six innings.
Reporter Bae Jeonghun has the details.
[Reporter]
Samsung starter Choi Won-tae flashed dominant stuff throughout the game.
Mixing fastballs topping out at 152 km/h with sharp breaking pitches, he racked up 10 strikeouts while holding Lotte to two runs on four hits over six innings.
The offense also delivered.
In the fifth inning, Kim Sung-yun hit a go-ahead RBI single to give Samsung a 3-2 lead. In the sixth, the team added five more runs—highlighted by Kim Ji-chan's bases-clearing, 3-RBI triple—to seal the game.
Securing an 8-5 victory, Samsung extended its winning streak to seven games and maintained a half-game lead at the top of the standings.
Lotte's Ko Seung-min put on a strong performance with back-to-back home runs in the second and fourth innings, but had to swallow his disappointment as his team fell deeper into a six-game losing skid.
Second-place KT kept up the chase for the lead by defeating Hanwha.
Tied 4-4 in the seventh inning, KT took a two-run lead with RBI singles from Kim Min-hyuk and Huh Kyung-min. They then locked up the win in the eighth as Hilliard slugged his 31st home run of the season, a solo shot, contributing to a three-run outburst.
KT won 9-6, while Hanwha plunged into a nine-game losing streak and dropped to ninth place.
LG seized early momentum by pounding out six hits and four runs in the first inning, defeating its Jamsil rival Doosan to claim its third straight win. Meanwhile, NC extended its winning streak to five games with a 3-2 walk-off victory on a bases-loaded walk amid control troubles from KIA closer Lee Eui-lee.
KIA's Kim Do-young narrowly missed a chance to become the youngest player to hit 40 home runs when his massive drive in the sixth inning was caught right in front of the warning track.
Powered by a resilient offense that rallied with four runs in the seventh after falling behind 6-1, and another four runs in the ninth to pull within one, SSG defeated Kiwoom 9-6.
(Video by Lee Jae-sung)
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