Heroes' slide continues as rain disrupts another week of KBO action

Baseball

Published: 22 Aug. 2022, 15:45

Heroes' slide continues as rain disrupts another week of KBO action

Kiwoom Heroes outfielder Lee Yong-kyu reacts after flying out during the sixth inning of a game against the SSG Landers at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The Kiwoom Heroes failed to win a single game over the last week, continuing their slide in a distant third place with the KT Wiz now just one win away from knocking them down to fourth.

Only a rain cancellation saved the Heroes from being swept three times as the KBO has now shifted to two-game series to wrap up the final month of the season.

The Heroes started the week off by dropping both games against the KT Wiz at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul — 5-4, 3-2 — before losing their opening game against the Doosan Bears 10-2 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul. The Heroes avoided a second sweep as Friday’s game against the Bears was postponed due to rain.

Moving into the weekend, the Heroes found themselves facing the unstoppable first-place SSG Landers and were quickly two decisive losses — 14-7, 6-1. With the five losses on the trot, the Heroes now sit in third place, 13.5 games behind first and just half a game ahead of the Wiz in fourth place.

The Heroes are 5.5 games behind the second-place LG Twins, a team they were ahead of just 17 days ago.

But while the Heroes continued on a definite downward trajectory, it was a surprisingly up and down week for the Landers, who managed just four games due to two rain cancellations.

With their Tuesday game canceled, the Landers managed just one game against the Kia Tigers, dropping that 4-3. Moving into the midweek series, the Landers lost their opening game against the Twins 8-4, and were unable to mount a comeback in the second game, with rain again forcing a cancellation.

The dominant weekend series against the Heroes allowed the Landers to maintain a 7-3 line over the last 10 games, beaten only by the NC Dinos who went 8-2 to jump up to sixth place.

The Dinos also struggled with rain cancellations throughout the week, missing their opening game against the last-place Hanwha Eagles on Tuesday and then taking the second game 6-4 on Wednesday.

The sixth-place team split their midweek series with the fifth-place Tigers, losing the opening 14-8 and then coming back to win the game two 12-9 on Friday. Moving into the weekend, the Dinos’ first game against the ninth-place Samsung Lions was canceled, with the Changwon club winning the second game 6-2.

The second-place Twins started things off with one of the only proper sweeps of the week, beating the Lions — 6-3, 11-7 — at home.

After also besting the Landers, the Twins moved into the weekend where they took on the eighth-place Bears in the Jamsil derby. Despite being by far the dominant Jamsil team this season, the Twins were unable to take a clear victory over the Bears, splitting the series with a 6-1 win on Saturday and a 4-2 loss on Sunday.

Alongside the Twins and the Landers, the Lions pulled off the weeks only other sweep, beating the Eagles in two games on Thursday and Friday — 7-4, 9-5.

Elsewhere on the week, the seventh-place Lotte Giants beat the Bears 8-6 on Wednesday after a rain cancellation a day earlier, split their midweek series with the Wiz — 0-1, 4-3 — and with the Eagles over the weekend — 3-5, 8-1.

The final game of the week saw the Tigers and Wiz split a fourth vs. fifth place series over the week, with the Tigers winning the opening game 5-2 and the Wiz taking the second game 11-3.

With just over four weeks left of regular season scheduled games, the key races now appear to be between third and fourth place, where just 0.5 games separates the Heroes and Wiz, and the sixth, seventh and eighth place fight between the Dinos, Giants and Bears, who are separated by just one game.

Whether either of those three teams can do well enough to challenge the Tigers for the wildcard spot remains to be seen, although the Tigers could also mount a last-gasp campaign to move higher up the rankings as the Heroes slide continues.

Only a remarkable collapse would prevent the Landers, eight games clear in first place, from securing the pennant.

The KBO returns Tuesday as the Wiz visit the Bears at Jamsil, the Lions take on the Landers in Incheon, the Giants face the Dinos in their local derby down in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, the Tigers head to Seoul to take on the Heroes and the Twins visit the Eagles in Daejeon.

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