Busan: After his LG Twins squeezed past the Lotte Giants 2-1 in a rain-shortened game Tuesday night, Cheon Seong-ho counted his blessings for lucky bounces that led to his go-ahead RBI. With the score tied at 1-1, Oh Ji-hwan drew a walk for the Twins to lead off the top seventh at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan, some 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul. Cheon stepped into the box trying to put down a sacrifice bunt but fouled off the first pitch from reliever Hyeon Do-hoon.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Cheon showed bunt again on the next pitch but quickly pulled his bat back for a full swing. He slapped a fastball down the third base line and third baseman Park Seung-wook, who was playing in to prepare for a bunt, had no chance to make the catch. The ball rolled into the foul territory but stopped after hitting a rolled-up tarp along the fence. Left fielder Kim Dong-hyun had to rush in to pick up the ball but Oh still had plenty of time to score all the way from first. "Once I fell behind early, my mind started racing," Cheon said. "But luckily, the ball I hit found the hole on the left side. And for it to stop where it did, I think heaven helped us quite a bit today. When I reached second base, Ji-hwan was already heading home. That was pretty fortunate."

Cheon could use all the breaks he could get. He came into this game batting just .153 for May with only nine hits in 59 at-bats. It came on the heels of a .361 average in April. Cheon showed some signs of life in his previous game on Sunday with a key double and then delivered the game-winning run Tuesday. Cheon said, though, he still has long ways to go.

"I don't think I am swinging the bat well enough yet," he said. "But I felt pretty good during batting practice today, so I tried to swing the bat with some confidence today. I didn't get a hit in the first two at-bats but I still trusted myself. And I think it will be important to keep that confidence in myself going forward."

Cheon's hit made the winner out of starting pitcher Anders Tolhurst, who held the Giants to a run on five hits and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings. With his sixth win of the year, Tolhurst pulled into a tie for the Korea Baseball Organization lead in that category.

"It's great being able to get the win, just being able to go out there and compete with what I had today and give the team the best chance to win," Tolhurst said. "And I knew that the offense was going to be able to come through today." Tolhurst only faced three batters and recorded one out in his previous game last Tuesday, when he was automatically ejected for hitting a batter in the head with a fastball. The American right-hander said he had already put that game out of his mind and tried to focus on Tuesday's game.

Asked if the abbreviated outing was a blessing in disguise in that he had more left in the tank, Tolhurst said, "I honestly didn't feel the greatest today with what I had. But you know, I'm going to go out here and compete no matter how I'm feeling and just being able to do my best was the biggest thing today."