SSG Landers remain top of league for sixth straight week

SSG Landers ace Kim Kwang-hyun pitches against the Kiwoom Heroes on Sunday at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul. [YONHAP]

The SSG Landers remain top of the league for the sixth straight week since the start of the season, after beating the Kiwoom Heroes 2-1 in the weekend series.

After conceding the first match 9-2 on Friday, the Landers won the second match 3-0 Saturday and won the third match 6-2 on Sunday.

Sunday's game saw MLB returnee Kim Kwang-hyun head to the mound as he slots into the SSG rotation. Kim, who played the last two seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals before returning to Korea after failing to land a new contract during the major league lockout, threw a scoreless six innings, giving up three hits and one walk with eight strikeouts on Sunday.

Losing the weekend series against the Landers, the Kiwoom Heroes stepped down from last week's fourth position to fifth place.

The Landers dominance continues as they widen the gap with the second placed club. Last week, the Lotte Giants were second trailing 3.5 games behind. However, the LG Twins have now taken that place and are 5.5 games behind the top Incheon club.

The LG Twins swept the weekend series against the NC Dinos. After falling three places to fifth last week, the Twins are back in second place with the weekend sweep. The Twins first beat the Dinos 15-8, then on Saturday took a 6-3 victory adding a 3-2 win on Sunday.

Doosan lost the weekend series 2-1 against the seventh-placed KT Wiz. Doosan was completely shut out on Friday, losing the first match 6-0. Doosan won 11-8 on Saturday but was again shut out on Sunday when KT beat them 5-0.

Despite losing the weekend series, the Doosan Bears still move up from last week's fourth place to third position after a 2-1 series victory over the LG Twins during the weekday fixtures.

The Jamsil derby, between stadium partners LG and the Doosan Bears, is one of the most highly anticipated match ups of the KBO season, but often there is little more on the line than bragging rights. The stakes were higher this week, however, as the Twins and Bears were also fighting over fourth place. The Bears emerged victorious in that competition, beating the Twins 5-2 on May 4, then 9-4 on May 5, but lost the last match on May 6, 6-0.

The Samsung Lions moved up to sixth position after a successful week. The Lions beat the NC Dinos 2-1 in the weekday series then swept the weekend series against the Lotte Giants.

On Friday, the Lions completely shut out the Giants with a 5-0 win then beat them 4-1 on Saturday and 4-2 on Sunday.

The bottom three teams look the same as last week, the Kia Tigers taking seventh place, the Hanwha Eagles taking eight place and the NC Dinos taking bottom position.

The KBO resumes on Tuesday when the Eagles face the Twins, KT faces KIA, the Dinos face the Giants, the Bears face the Heroes and the Landers face the Lions.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]