NC Dinos inch closer to playoff spot with six-game winning streak

The NC Dinos celebrate after beating the Lotte Giants 14-0 at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on Aug. 7. [YONHAP]

The sixth-place NC Dinos are making a last-minute push for a playoff spot with six straight wins over Chuseok, putting the club 4.5 games behind the fifth-place Kia Tigers with 23 games still to play this season.

The Dinos started their unbeaten run on Sept. 6, when they swept the ninth-place Doosan Bears, 4-3, 16-5, in a two-game midweek series, before breezing past the fourth-place KT Wiz on Thursday and Friday, 8-3, 17-1.

Moving into the weekend, the Dinos took on local rivals the Lotte Giants, beating the seventh-place team 6-3 on Saturday and 11-6 on Sunday to round off a very productive Chuseok holiday.

With the six wins, the Dinos are now seven and three over their last 10 games, putting them 22.5 games behind the first-place SSG Landers and four games behind the fifth-place Tigers as of press time Tuesday.

With the fifth-place team earning a ticket to the Wildcard series, the Dinos have 23 games left to dislodge the Tigers and earn their chance to fight their way into the playoffs proper. The Changwon, South Gyeongsang club does have a slight advantage over the Tigers, who only have 20 games left of the regular season.

The Dinos were not the only team on the offensive over Chuseok, with the second-place LG Twins at one point pulling within three games of the Landers on Saturday, only to slip back down to four games as of Sunday.

Often falling right at the end of the KBO season, the Chuseok holiday has often provided some last-gasp magic as teams mount a final push to make it into the postseason.

The biggest Chuseok winners ever were the 1999 Hanwha Eagles.

The 1999 season fell during the KBO’s short-lived two-league experiment, when the teams were divided into the Dream League and the Magic League.

Playing in the Magic League, the Eagles were safely in playoff territory in second place, but with a game balance that left them 4.5 games behind the Hyundai Unicorns, who were third in the Dream League. Under the regulations at the time, if the second-place team in one league was behind the third-place team in the other on points, they would have to play a separate playoff to decide who advances to the postseason.

With 12 games left to play, the Eagles exploded into life over Chuseok, sweeping the Unicorns over the holiday with a shutout on the day of Chuseok itself. They went on to win 10 consecutive games to lock in second place, beat the Bears 4-0 in the playoffs and then cruised past the Giants in the Korean Series. That victory remains the club’s only championship title.

While the Eagles had the most emphatic Chuseok turnaround, the Bears have undoubtedly seen the most success over the holiday.

Chuseok magic first started working for the Bears back in 1985, when the club was known as the OB Bears. On the day before Chuseok that year, the Bears came from two runs down at the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Giants 4-3 and knock MBC Chungryong down to start the playoffs in first place.

In 1995 the Bears struck again, winning four games against the Haitai Tigers over Chuseok to challenge the Twins in first place on the table, ultimately winning the pennant by 0.5 games. In 1998 the same thing happened, with the Bears sweeping the Tigers to inch into the postseason.

Ten years later in 2008 it happened again, with Doosan sweeping the Tigers over Chuseok and going on to climb up to second place in the KBO ahead of the playoffs.

But while history might be on the Bears’ side, the club’s performance this season certainly has not been. The Bears currently sit in ninth place on the table with no real shot at making it anywhere near contention, with the Dinos now looking to be the club to upset the Tigers this season.

BY JIM BULLEY AND BAE YOUNG-EUN [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]