LG Twins reclaim top spot as KBO hits halfway point

Baseball

Published: 03 Jul. 2023, 15:40 Updated: 03 Jul. 2023, 18:04

LG Twins reclaim top spot as KBO hits halfway point

Kim Hyun-soo of the LG Twins high-fives coach Lee Jong-beom after hitting an RBI at the bottom of the third inning of a game against the Kia Tigers at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

The LG Twins reclaimed the top spot on the table this week as the 2023 KBO season hit the halfway point with the majority of teams having played at least 72 games of the 143-game season.

The Twins returned to the top of the table in style on Tuesday, thumping the then-first place SSG Landers 14-0 on the road at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon.

The Twins won again on Wednesday, this time 8-6, to lock in the series victory, but lost their chance at a sweep as rain cancelations prevented any games from behind held across the league on Thursday.

The third-place Giants put on a similarly dominant performance against the 10th-place Samsung Lions down in Busan, riding a 5-3, 9-6 line through Tuesday and Wednesday.

The sixth-place Kiwoom Heroes also had a shot at a sweep against the ninth-place Kia Tigers, winning the opening two games, 8-1, 7-5, before the rain cancelation ended the series early.

The eighth-place Hanwha Eagles, who have been gradually inching up the table over the last few weeks, also had a sweep on the cards, beating the seventh-place KT Wiz, 4-1, 6-4, before their series in Daejeon was also cut short.

The third-place NC Dinos and fifth-place Doosan Bears split their midweek action, with the Bears winning the opener, 3-2, and the Dinos taking the second game, 4-1.

Moving into the weekend, the Wiz rebounded to claim the only true sweep of the week, edging out the Dinos at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi: 3-2, 7-6, 5-0.

The Dinos were not the only top-five team to lose over the weekend, with the Giants also falling to the Bears. It was a low-scoring affair at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan, with the Giants taking the opener 1-0, the Bears tying things up with a 2-1 win on Saturday and then coming back to take the rubber match on the road, 4-2.

The Twins had better luck, beating the Kia Tigers at home at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul in another close series that came down to the third game. The Twins edged out the Tigers for a 5-4 win on Friday, only to see the tables turned as the visitors won 5-3 on Saturday. The Twins rebounded on Sunday, scraping through a 3-1 victory to win the series.

The Landers saw a similar result on the road against the Heroes in western Seoul, but there were a lot more runs in that series to keep the fans entertained. The Landers kicked things off with a big 7-3 win, losing 6-3 on Saturday and bouncing back to take the rubber match 9-5.

The final series of the weekend saw the Eagles continue their hot streak with a two-games-to-one win over the Samsung Lions: 6-1, 10-4, 1-2. With the win, the Eagles inch closer to seventh place while the Lions are now 4.5 games behind anyone else in last place.

With a week and a half still to go before the All-Star break, the majority of KBO clubs passed the 72-game threshold that marks the middle of the season.

The Heroes have played the most games, at 77, followed by the Twins on 76 and the Landers on 74. The Eagles and Lions have played 73 apiece and the Bears and Wiz have played 72 each.

The Dinos and Giants are yet to hit the halfway mark, on 71 games each, while the Tigers trail on 69.

Despite having so many games in hand, the Twins and Landers are highly unlikely to be challenged for the top two spots anytime soon. A clear 7.5 games separate the leading pair from everyone else on the table, a gulf that already seems fairly unassailable with half the season still to go.

The halfway point also tied in with another major annual KBO milestone. The league announced Saturday that attendance at baseball games was set to pass 4 million on Sunday. Attendance at the early SSG vs. Kiwoom game pushed the league over the mark, making it 4 million fans through the doors in exactly 360 games so far this season.

The KBO returns Tuesday as the Twins take on the Wiz, the Landers play the Tigers, the Dinos face the Heroes, the Giants visit the Eagles in Daejeon and the Bears and Lions face off in Pohang, North Gyeongsang.

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