“What are the reasons for Park Se-woong's slump? It's the same story for several years.”
Before the game, Kim Tae-hyoung, manager of the Lotte Giants, met with reporters on the 11th to explain the reason for excluding Park Se-woong from the first team roster ahead of their seventh matchup of the season against the KT Wiz at Suwon KT Wiz Park in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League.
Ahead of the game, Kim Tae-hyoung, who removed Park Se-woong from the first team roster and registered left-handed pitcher Hong Min-ki, said, 'I have to pitch again on Sunday, but I judged that it would be too much to have him pitch again on Sunday. So I decided to just take him out for this turn.'
Park Se-woong, who signed a non-free agent multi-year contract worth 9 billion won in total for 5 years, is experiencing a proper rollercoaster in his third year. From March 29, during an 8-game winning streak against KT until May 11, evaluations indicated that the 9 billion won was not a waste, but after struggling with a no decision, allowing 5 runs in 5 innings against Samsung on May 17, he has fallen into a rapid decline, facing his personal 4-game losing streak.
On the 10th, Park Se-woong started against KT in Suwon and had his worst outing of the season, allowing 12 hits (including 2 home runs), 2 walks, striking out 2 batters, and giving up 8 runs in 5 innings on 100 pitches, suffering his 5th loss of the season (8 wins), and was notified the next day of his demotion to the second team. His record over the last 5 games stands at 4 losses without a victory, an earned run average of 8.67, and in June, this figure soars to an earned run average of 11.32.
Kim Tae-hyoung diagnosed the situation, saying, 'It's the same story for several years with Park Se-woong. I believe he needs to have a bit more confidence. Even if the performance in the game is not good, he needs to enter with certainty in his heart; without confidence, the pitches end up being poor. Everything else is perfectly fine, but this is a consistent issue. If you look at yesterday as well, all the pitches were centered.'
With Park Se-woong's removal, there is now a gap in the starting position for the upcoming game against the Incheon SSG Landers on the 15th. Kim Tae-hyoung said, 'The Sunday starter has not been decided yet. However, since Kim Jin-wook will step in for Na Gyun-an tomorrow, Na Gyun-an might pitch on Sunday.'
Lotte set their starting lineup against KT's left-handed starting pitcher Emmanuel de Jesus, with Jang Du-seong (center fielder), Go Seung-min (designated hitter), Víctor Reyes (right fielder), Jeon Jun-woo (left fielder), Kim Min-sung (third baseman), Jeon Min-jae (shortstop), Jung Hoon (first baseman), Han Tae-yang (second baseman), and Jeung Bo-keun (catcher). Son Ho-young was removed from the lineup and Han Tae-yang was inserted. The starting pitcher is Tucker Davidson.
Kim Tae-hyoung explained the reason for removing Son Ho-young from the lineup by saying, 'Son Ho-young probably couldn't hit de Jesus's pitches well. And he hasn't been performing that well at the plate lately. It might be better for him to rest today.'
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