In May, the KBO League drew attention as the race of Kiwoom, the lowest ranking team, as well as the leading battle. After spending May with a monthly winning rate of 0.154 (4 wins, 1 draw and 22 losses), Kiwoom's winning rate dropped to 0.241. It has also been compared to the "legendary weak" since the first year of professional baseball, including Lotte, whose winning rate in the 2002 season fell to 0.265.
Most of the people felt that Kiwoom's fatal slump could be a "emerging variable" that shakes the entire game, which led to the increase in attention on Kiwoom's season. SBS commentator Lee Soon-cheol said at that time, "Growing up and matches are becoming new variables. There are repeated cases where the team that has fallen in the cycle meets Kiwoom. I see Kiwoom's opponent first while looking at the weekly schedule."
In May, Samsung, Hanwha, and LG accumulated wins with three wins and no losses against Kiwoom. KT also charged the winning rate with five wins and one loss in two series with Kiwoom. NC even received attention as if it had lost even after finishing the series with two wins and one loss with Kiwoom in May.
Kiwoom has been a variable that moves the entire game since June. However, the direction of the variable has changed. Kiwoom baseball is rapidly becoming tricky. If it's a series with Kiwoom, the universal view of the entire league, which saw sweep as a natural goal, has disappeared.
Kiwoom recorded 6 wins and 1 loss in seven games from the game against Doosan in Gocheok on the 31st of last month to the game against LG in Gocheok on the 7th. It caught Doosan 1-0 for two consecutive days in the weekend series a week ago, and secured the winning series by defeating LG in a new weekend. Former head coach Lee Seung-yeop, who was in his third year as Doosan's head coach, was on the verge of resignation because of the shock of meeting Kiwoom and losing Youngbong for two consecutive days.
The reason why there is a shift in gaze toward the schedule against Kiwoom is also due to the change in the height of the Kiwoom mound. Kiwoom made an unconventional choice to use two batters out of three foreign players during this season, but it failed to break the conventional wisdom that baseball is a pitcher's play. After quickly acknowledging the misjudgment and saying goodbye to Yasiel Puig, one of the foreign hitters, he began to put his mound-oriented strategy ahead again by recruiting Raul Alcantara, a "single goal" foreign pitcher in the KBO League, where a new road is being opened.
Alcantara reported his return with six hits and no runs in six innings against Doosan on the 1st, and on the 7th against LG, he won the ace title with two wins and an ERA of 0.64 in two games with three hits and one run in eight innings.
With the current trend, it is difficult for any top-ranked team to predict how the match against Kiwoom will be resolved. It also gives the impression of regaining Kiwoom's color last year, when Heyesus (KT) and Furado (Samsung) struggled with the starting pitcher with a one-two punch. Kiwoom had a team ERA of 2.86 in the last seven games until the 7th. Even though foreign hitter Cardinez predicted a six-week absence due to injury, he held on with the mound strength. Considering that the previous team's ERA was 6.02, it has become almost a different team. 바카라
Kiwoom ranked third in the regular season in 2022 and ranked third in the Korean Series, and fell to the bottom with a winning percentage in the early 40s over the past two years, being pushed out of the center of the ranking battle. However, "cultivation and relativity" was one of the decisive factors that moved the ranking last year as well.
For example, LG lost to Kiwoom with 6 wins and 10 losses last year, holding back its bid to win the title for the second consecutive year. Last year's championship KIA had a good run with 11 wins and 5 losses in the game against Kiwoom, and Samsung, which ranked second this season, also finished the game with 10-6 losses, laying the groundwork for its winning rate.
How will Kiwoom move the league this year? At least, Kiwoom and the rest of the games have changed dramatically.