 Lotte Giants manager Yang Seung-ho waves to home fans as his team secures a berth in the second round of the KBO playoffs after a 20-2 rout over the Hanwha Eagles at Sajik Stadium in Busan, Tuesday. / Yonhap |
The Lotte Giants finally secured the runner-up spot in the regular season standings with a 20-2 thrashing of the Hanwha Eagles, Tuesday The club will now progress directly to the second round of the playoffs.
With two games left to play the Giants are two games ahead of the third-placed SK Wyverns with a 70-5-56 record.
Even if the Giants lose their last two games and the Wyverns win both theirs, it will not change anything as the Busan-based team leads in head-to-head meetings with a 10-1-8 record.
This is the Giants highest regular season finish since the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) unified the league from two divisions in 1989.
But the ultimate goal is to secure a third Korean Series title. Since the team’s second triumph in 1992, they have not lifted the trophy in 19 years, the longest drought among the eight KBO teams.
“Chances don’t come often. If we finish the second round playoff with a 3-1 record we will have a big chance to win the Korean Series,” said Giants manager Yang Seung-ho.
He also showed the team’s strong will to win the championship title.
“There is still the Korean Series left,” Yang said. “Our year is not over. We are going to prepare for the playoffs. As our first target is advancing to the Korean Series, we will put all our efforts into that.”
At the beginning of the season the Giants were in bad shape, hovering at the bottom of the table.
But by the end of June, the Giants were eight games behind a .500 winning percentage. As the weather warmed up, the Giants started accelerating toward the top spot.
In July and August, the Giants collected the most wins, going 13-6 and 16-7 respectively.
The Busan-based team advanced to the post season for the three previous seasons but their performances have been disappointing.
The Giants have plenty of experience and the fans and players have high expectations that their potential will be realized in the postseason.
