The sweltering heat has subsided and a cool breeze is blowing, signaling the beginning of fall, but the heat of the battle for rankings in professional baseball shows no signs of cooling down.
With 20 to 30 games remaining for each team, each KBO League club is fiercely competing for last-minute positions.
The first-place LG Twins enter the final battle for the regular season championship.
From the 5th to the 7th, LG will play a three-game series against second-place KT Wiz at Suwon KT Wiz Park from the 5th to the 7th.
Depending on the results of the three-game series, LG may solidify first place or provide an excuse to catch up.
As of the 4th, LG and KT are 5.5 games behind each other.
If LG wins a winning series with two or more wins, it will cross the 7th division of the regular season championship, but if it loses all three games, the lead between the two teams will be reduced to 2.5 games, and the battle for first place will fall into the fog.
The atmosphere between both teams has not been very good recently. LG is on a 2-game losing streak, and KT is on a 3-game losing streak.
LG was shaken by the injury of ace Adam Plutko and was defeated by the last-place Hanwha Eagles for two days in a row.
KT’s batting lineup was also poor and they suffered a clean sweep to 9th place Kiwoom Heroes.
Meanwhile, LG and KT are in the mood of going ‘all in’ for the three-game series in Suwon.
KT plans to field all three key starters, including William Cuevas, Wes Benjamin, and Go Young-pyo.
In addition, leading hitter Kang Baek-ho, who was excluded from the team due to mental issues, and veteran infielder Kim Sang-su, whose entry was canceled due to an ankle sprain, will join.
LG’s Casey Kelly and Choi Won-tae are expected to participate in the KT match.
Once KT completes its three-game series with LG, it will have to compete against 3rd place SSG Landers.
KT and SSG are only two games apart, so their rankings may change through this week’s game.
However, SSG appears to be slowing down with four consecutive losses due to extreme sluggishness in two-hitting.
SSG made major changes to its coaching staff on the 3rd to prevent the decline, but it did not see much effect right away.
Rather, the momentum of the 4th place KIA Tigers is scary.
KIA recently achieved 8 consecutive wins, taking the lead with a bad bat, and rose to 4th place. The gap between KIA and SSG is only 1.5 games.토스카지노
KIA plays a three-game series with Doosan in Jamsil and then invites LG to their home.
KIA recorded a team batting average of 0.337 during the 8-game winning streak, and the team OPS (slugging percentage + on-base percentage) reached a whopping 0.918. Expectations are high on how long KIA’s upward trend will continue.
There is a double header variable in professional baseball this week.
Two consecutive games will be held on the 9th: LG-KIA (Gwangju), Samsung Lions-Doosan (Jamsil), Lotte Giants-NC Dinos (Changwon), and Hanwha Eagles-Kiwoom Heroes (Gocheok).
Teams that go through physical ups and downs in the hot weather must play under considerable pressure.