Seoul: Desperate for a spark for his struggling team, Samsung Lions manager Park Jin-man put a 19-year-old rookie in the starting lineup, trying to avoid a three-game sweep at the hands of the LG Twins. Sim Jae-hoon, the 13th overall pick at last year's Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) draft, will make his professional debut at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. He will play second base and bat eighth in the lineup.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Lions are mired in a season-worst four-game losing skid. They were no-hit by four LG pitchers in a 3-0 loss Tuesday and got hammered 12-2 the next day despite getting eight hits. "I felt we needed to shake up our lineup," Park said in his pregame media scrum. "I penciled in some young guys who can provide some energy and liven things up a bit."

Joining Sim will be little-used infielder Lee Chang-yong, who will be designated hitter Thursday against Twins starter Song Seung-ki, whom he faced often in the minor league last year. This will be only the 11th career KBO game for the 25-year-old Lee.

The Lions are second overall in the KBO with 112 runs scored and third with an on-base plus slugging (OPS) of .745. But they have done most of the damage at home, having hit 20 of 21 homers at hitter-friendly Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu, with an OPS of .822. Away from home, the Lions have a .559 OPS -- the largest home-road difference in OPS in the KBO.

"We did get a few hits in the last game, but they were scattered," Park said. "We're just not ourselves right now. We've run into some good pitchers, too. We have to fix this quickly, and I am a bit worried."

The recent slide dropped the Lions' record to 10-10-0 (wins-losses-ties), pushing them down from second place to fourth place in the standings.