Tigers take a beating as Dinos look to challenge for wildcard spot

Baseball

Published: 19 Sep. 2022, 15:55

Tigers take a beating as Dinos look to challenge for wildcard spot

Kia Tigers starter Yang Hyeon-jong reacts after allowing a run at the top of the sixth inning during a game against the Hanwha Eagles at Gwangju Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on Friday. [YONHAP]

Only three of the 15 series played in the KBO last week ended in a sweep, and the fifth-place Kia Tigers were the losing side in every single one of them.

The Tigers are currently stuck in a seven-game losing streak, leaving them in an increasingly perilous position as they attempt to hold onto the wildcard spot with 14 games left to play. The sixth-place NC Dinos, meanwhile, have won seven of their last 10 games and sit just 1.5 games behind the Tigers with three games in hand.

The Tigers took their punishment from all directions last week, starting with a 4-1, 2-0 series loss to the third-place Kiwoom Heroes.

While the Heroes series might have been expected, the two straight losses — 2-1, 7-6 — to the last-place Hanwha Eagles likely came as something of a shock to Tigers fans, with the Eagles only passing 40 wins on the season within the last week.

The bad luck continued into the weekend, when the seventh-place Samsung Lions took advantage of their turn against the Tigers, winning 10-1 on Saturday and 9-6 on Sunday.

The slide puts the Tigers a full 21 games behind the SSG Landers in first place and 9.5 games behind the KT Wiz in fourth. With the Dinos just 1.5 games behind the Tigers and the Lions and Lotte Giants only a couple of games behind the Dinos, there is still plenty of time left for the Gwangju team to be knocked off the wildcard spot.

092010-KBO

While Kia’s struggles provided some decisive results, every other series over the last week — all of which were two-game series as the end of the season nears — ended split, meaning there is very little change on the KBO table.

The second-place LG Twins and eighth-place Doosan Bears split the latest edition of the Jamsil derby on Tuesday and Wednesday, each winning a game 5-0. The Landers and the Giants also took a game each, as did the Lions and the Dinos and the Wiz and the Eagles.

On Friday the Twins and the Wiz suffered the only rain cancellation of the week, meaning the Twins’ 2-0 win on Thursday was the only game of that series completed. Elsewhere the Heroes and the Giants split their series, as did the Bears and the Lions and the Landers and the Dinos.

It was more of the same over the weekend, when the Eagles took on the Twins, the Bears faced the Landers, the Giants played the Wiz and the Dinos took on the Heroes, all taking a game apiece.

That muddle of results leaves the Landers in first place with a 3.5-game lead over the Twins, a fairly narrow gap considering that the Twins have five games in hand. The Heroes follow six games behind, with the Wiz two games behind them, meaning the final few weeks of the season look increasingly like a two-horse race.

Neither club has been on especially good form recently. The Landers have just four wins in their last 10 games, while the Twins have scraped together five.

The Landers have finished in the top two in the KBO three times in the last 10 seasons, but have not won the pennant since 2010. They’ve won the Korean Series four times in the club’s 22-year history, in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2018.

The Twins are a far older team, having existed since the KBO was founded 40 years ago, but have only won the pennant since 1994, although they did top the four-team Magic League when the KBO was briefly split into two divisions in 2000. The Twins have only won the Korean Series twice, in 1990 and 1994.

The Twins could see that gap with first place narrow this week if the Tigers poor form continues, as the two clubs will face off starting Tuesday in Gwangju. The Landers, meanwhile, will host the Wiz in Incheon.

Elsewhere in the KBO, the Dinos will visit the Bears in Jamsil, southern Seoul, the Lions will take on the Heroes in western Seoul and the Giants will face the Eagles in Daejeon.

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