Is it a crime to be on the 9th place team? Doosan Bears foreign pitcher Jack Log experienced the misfortune of not achieving victory despite pitching 7 innings and allowing only 1 run. To make matters worse, in the bottom of the 8th inning, tied at 1-1, a backup catcher's disastrous bad throw occurred, resulting in the loss of the game.
Doosan Bears lost 1-3 in the 8th matchup of the season against the NC Dinos in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Changwon NC Park on the 28th.
Struggling through a difficult week after losing their ace Cole Ervin and native ace Kwak Bin, Doosan found Jack Log, who emerged as the effective ace at some point. He allowed a solo home run to Kim Hwi-jip after one out in the bottom of the 2nd, but that was the only run he allowed.
Jack Log showcased excellent management skills, overcoming crises in the bottom of the 3rd with one out and one on, the bottom of the 4th with no outs and one on two, and the bottom of the 5th with one out and one on third, all by ground double plays. He then closed out the bottom of the 6th with two outs and two on by stopping a ground ball from Park Geon-woo, followed by a three-up three-down inning with two strikeouts in the bottom of the 7th, achieving a quality start plus.
The Doosan lineup failed to get even one batter on second base against NC foreign pitcher Logan Allen by the top of the 5th inning. The story is that there were 'zero' chances to score during those five innings.
Doosan narrowly managed to tie the game in the top of the 6th inning, taking advantage of the opposing defense's shaky fielding. Lead-off batter Jeong Soo-bin reached base due to an error on first base by Park Min-woo. Lee Yoo-chan struck out on a swinging strike, but while Jake Cave was at bat, Jeong Soo-bin attempted to steal second and advanced to third due to a fielding error by shortstop Kim Joo-won. Then, Cave hit a sacrifice fly to right field, leveling the score at 1-1.
Unfortunately, Doosan's scoring also marked the top of the 6th as their first and last. After going scoreless in the top of the 7th and 8th innings, Jack Log reluctantly handed over the mound to Park Shin-ji in the bottom of the 8th, tied at 1-1. This was the moment the possibility of his fifth victory of the season vanished.
In the bottom of the 8th with one out, Doosan found themselves in a crisis with Park Shin-ji hitting a double splitting the right-center and giving up a straight walk to Kwon Hee-dong, creating first and second base threats. They faced Park Min-woo next, who saw the first pitch go for a ball, and Doosan's bench immediately assigned left-handed setup man Lee Byung-heon to manage the crisis.
However, in place of Yang Eui-ji, who needed to manage his stamina, second-year catcher Ryu Hyun-jun made a disastrous error. He captured Kim Joo-won's attempt to steal third but threw the ball badly, allowing Kim Joo-won to score the winning run. Lee Byung-heon gave up a run-scoring hit to Park Min-woo, completely losing the advantage.
With this defeat, Doosan fell into a three-game losing streak for the first time in 18 days following the match against Daejeon Hanwha Eagles. After a heartbreaking loss of 9-10 in a slugfest the day before, acting manager Jo Seong-hwan vowed to avenge the defeat before this game, but various bad circumstances such as lineup silence, critical errors, and struggles from the setup men led to the threat of a series sweep.
The first half of the 2025 season for 9th place Doosan is indeed perilous.
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