Lotte Giants’ foreign ace Charlie Barnes (29) will take the mound with the task of snapping a three-game losing streak.
Barnes will take the mound against the Doosan Bears of the 2024 Shinhan Sol Bank KBO League on Saturday at Munsu Baseball Stadium in Ulsan, South Korea.
It will be his second start since returning from injury.
After struggling in April, going 1-2 with a 4.29 ERA in six starts, Barnes rebounded in May. In five starts, he went 2-0 with a 2.60 ERA. In 27⅔ innings pitched, he struck out 38 batters.
However, an injury ended his first half early.
On May 26 against the Samsung Lions, Barnes left the mound after just 1⅔ innings with left thigh tightness, and the next day he was diagnosed with a micro-damage to his left adductor muscle and removed from the roster.
After being sidelined for more than a month, Barnes returned to the mound on Tuesday after a 45-day absence.
In his first start of the second half of the season, Barnes pitched a strong game against the SSG Landers on Tuesday.
He shut down the SSG lineup for six innings, allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out nine. He struck out nine.
Barnes was coming back from injury, so he was limited to 80 pitches. Barnes threw 77 pitches in six innings. If he hadn’t been limited, he could have thrown a complete game.
Lotte, which had lost the last two games of the first half to Doosan and the first game of the second half to SSG on the 9th, was in the midst of a three-game losing streak, 메이저사이트 but they were able to capitalize on Barnes’ strong pitching to escape the three-game losing streak.
Once again, Barnes’ shoulders are heavy.
Lotte broke a three-game losing streak on the 10th against SSG, but then fell into a three-game losing streak again. They lost to SSG on the 11th and KT Wiz on the 12th and 13th.
Currently in ninth place, 5.5 games behind fifth-place SSG, Lotte’s fall baseball hopes are still alive. They need to break the losing streak sooner rather than later if they want to make a run at the mid-table.
If Barnes is able to show the same form he had before his injury, Lotte will be able to rebound.
Barnes has made one appearance against Doosan this season. On April 7, he pitched a quality start against Doosan, allowing two runs on six hits (one home run) with five strikeouts and two walks in six innings.
That’s what you want from your ace when your team is in a losing streak and you need to break it. Barnes will once again take the mound with the streak-stopper specialty.
