Heo Kyoung-min grand slam halts dangerous Doosan slide

Doosan Bears infielder Heo Kyoung-min celebrates after hitting a grand slam in a game against the Kiwoom Heroes at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Third baseman Heo Kyoung-min hit a grand slam at the bottom of the seventh inning on Wednesday to carry the Doosan Bears to a 5-2 victory over the Kiwoom Heroes and narrowly avoid the worst losing streak the club has seen in nearly seven years.

Heo's four runs in the seventh helped Doosan overcome a 2-0 deficit, with an additional run in the eighth locking in the 5-2 win over the Heroes, who had been riding a nine-game winning streak of their own.

With the win, Doosan end their losing streak at five games. It's an unremarkable number — although a depressing one for Doosan fans — but it marked a dangerous threshold for the Bears: Doosan have not extended a losing streak to six games since September 2015.

In the KBO, where games are played every day except Monday, six straight losses is essentially a week of games. It's not an especially uncommon occurrence — the Kia Tigers, Hanwha Eagles, NC Dinos and Lotte Giants have all seen losing streaks extend to at least six games so far this season.

That the Bears have played six straight seasons without running into six consecutive losses is a testament to how strong the Seoul club has been.

Over the last decade, the Bears have emerged as perennial postseason contenders, appearing in the Korean Series for the last seven straight seasons. That success was built on the back of a formidable dynasty built on the back of manager Kim Tae-hyoung, who not only developed a deadly Doosan squad, but continuously reinvented it with players he had waiting in the wings as the club lost key players in the free agent market each year.

But Kim does not have a bottomless supply of players and this season that well finally seems to have run dry.

Heo, the Bears' starting third baseman for seven years, is one of the few starting players left that has been a big part of the Bears' squad throughout its glory years. But he was sidelined last month after sustaining a knee injury and unable to rejoin the squad until this week. While he was out, he watched the Bears fall from fighting for fifth place to just one and a half games above ninth.

Heo's return has helped the Bears turn their bats around, but speaking after the game on Wednesday, Heo didn't see much reason to celebrate.

"I can't exactly say I feel good," Heo said. "Nobody feels good about the current ranking. There's lots to work on. It wasn't easy watching the team keep losing while I was away, and now that I'm back I need to work harder to make things better."

Doosan may have avoided the six-game slide this time, but the club still needs to turn things around in a big way to move out of danger.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]