"It was a great compliment!"' Lotte Foreigners One-Two Punch, 'Pitcher's Tomb' Lapakseo 'Uncertainty' Is it a real story

*This content was translated by AI.

In the 2026 season, Lotte Giants' new foreign one-two punch Elvin Rodriguez (28) and Jeremy Bisley (31) showed stable pitches at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, which is called the "pitchers' grave." Despite the characteristics of the batter-friendly stadium, the two players showed off their strongest prowess in the league by completing the "non-ERR" game side by side. Last season, the evaluation of Cody Ponce and Ryan Weiss-class one-two punch proved to be no exaggeration.

Lotte beat the Samsung Lions 6-2 in the last game of the opening two consecutive games of the "2026 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League" at Daegu Samsung Lions Park on the 29th. Following the 6-3 victory in the opening game of the previous day (28th), he won two consecutive games. In particular, he set a real record of sweeping all two consecutive opening games in March for the first time in 11 years since the 2015 season.

It was no exaggeration to say that both games were caught thanks to the overwhelming performances of the starting pitchers. Elvin Rodriguez, who started the opening game on the 28th, reported his first win of the season with two hits, four strikeouts, and five walks in five innings with a fastball of up to 156 kilometers per hour. There were some walks, but he controlled Samsung batters' long balls well. Analysts say that the crisis management ability, which has been well-known since the days of the Yakult Swallows in the Japanese professional baseball (NPB), and the match against the right-handed hitter's body shone.

Jeremy Bisley, who took the mound on the 29th, also pitched a combination of a fast fastball of up to 155 kilometers per hour and a sharp sweeper, and became the winning pitcher with two hits, five strikeouts and one run (non-earned) in five innings. In particular, Bisley did not score an earned run in the bottom of the fifth inning, minimizing runs even in the first and third base crisis caused by a throwing error by first baseman Roh Jin-hyuk. As he has played for the Hanshin Tigers in the 2025 season, he showed impressive performance by efficient pitching management and water fighting as a pitcher trained in Japan's unique sophisticated baseball.

In particular, Lotte has had a difficult game in Daegu's away game in the 2025 season, struggling with home runs and long balls. He hit eight home runs in seven games and allowed one per game. However, Rodriguez and Bisley showed the pitching content that completely erased the characteristics of the stadium, announcing the improvement of the Lotte mound's constitution.

As two foreign pitchers from the NPB made calculated pitches, Lotte's 2026 season operation also began to make clear calculations. Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung (59) praised both Rodriguez and Bisley's good pitching in his victory speech.

The feelings of the two foreign players also looked at the better side. Rodriguez said, "It's a shame that I had a lot of walks (5). There is something to learn from looking back at each game, but I was especially disappointed that I couldn't pitch aggressively in the strike zone. I will make sure to show my improvement in the next game," he said.

In particular, Beasley said of Roh Jin-hyuk, who made a mistake in the fifth inning, "The mistake can always happen. Mistakes are part of the game, and it's up to the pitcher to get through them. I believe our team's fielders are the best. Noh Jin-hyuk hit a home run and scored an extra point. Therefore, I rather want to express my gratitude to Roh Jin-hyuk," he said.

Lotte Giants swept all of the opening two consecutive games with a clear foreign one-two punch of Rodriguez and Bisley. Baseball fans are now paying attention to what native starting pitchers will look like in the three consecutive away games in Changwon, which will begin on the 31st.

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*This content was translated by AI.