KB News Desk
Following a short break, the Korean baseball season will resume Tuesday with a highly anticipated series between the league’s two best clubs.
The Kia Tigers, leading the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) at 48-33-2 (wins-losses-ties), will visit No. 2-ranked LG Twins for a three-game set at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. The Twins, the defending Korean Series champions, trail the Tigers by 3.5 games at 46-38-2.
With rain in the forecast throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, and again Thursday afternoon, the teams may not be able to play their series in entirety. And that would be a big letdown for two of the KBO’s most popular teams certain to draw huge crowds at the 23,750-seat stadium.
The Tigers hold a 6-3 lead in their season series so far, most recently taking two out of three from June 18 to 20.
Tigers starter James Naile, who leads the KBO with a 2.66 ERA, has a 1.96 ERA in three starts versus the Twins. He is scheduled to start the series opener Tuesday, followed by Cam Alldred and Yang Hyeon-jong.
The Twins will also counter with their top three starters in Casey Kelly, Dietrich Enns and Im Chan-kyu.
No Twins starter picked up a win against the Tigers in the first half. Enns made three starts against them but didn’t have a win-loss record while posting a 4.50 ERA over 16 innings.
In the Twins’ final game of the first half last Thursday, Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said his team could start making a serious push for first place once his injured players are back in the second half.
Shortstop Oh Ji-hwan, who hasn’t played since May 29, is expected to be back at some point during this Tigers series, after recovering from wrist and hamstring injuries. Starter Choi Won-tae, out since mid June with an upper back injury, is likely to start Friday.
Among other series, the fifth-ranked SSG Landers will host No. 8 Lotte Giants in the western city of Incheon starting Tuesday. The two clubs are separated by only three games.
The Giants have been on the rise since an 8-21-1 start. They posted the league’s best record in June at 14-11-1 to jump back into postseason contention.
The Samsung Lions, who lost their final five games of the first half and reshuffled their coaching staff before the All-Star break, will host the NC Dinos. The Lions began last week in second place, with a chance to catch the Tigers at the top, but instead got swept and fell to fourth place. They hold a three-game lead over the Dinos, who are in sixth place after two straight wins.
The two bottom feeders will meet in Seoul, with last-place Kiwoom Heroes set to host ninth-ranked Hanwha Eagles at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. It is the only series guaranteed to be played in full to begin this week.
The Heroes finished the first half by winning six of their last seven games and now trail the Eagles by 1.5 games. The Eagles had two wins in their final six games before the break.
The KT Wiz, who had a five-game winning streak snapped last Thursday, will host the Doosan Bears beginning Tuesday. The Wiz have slowly climbed out of the cellar to reach seventh place, three games out of the fifth and final postseason spot. The Bears, now four games behind the Tigers, will look to close the gap on the league leaders.
