It is no exaggeration to say that it is the “all-time” competition. The regular season is nearing its end, but the competition for rankings is still not over. Even teams staying at the bottom are aiming for a dramatic turnaround.
The “2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League” will play the rest of the games in September, and it is time to determine the main character of autumn baseball, but it is difficult to easily determine the main character of the ticket due to the fierce competition for the fourth and fifth place, which is the Maginot line.
As of Tuesday, the team that is at the top of the list is the KIA Tigers. It is leading the competition to win the regular season title. It slowed down as it lost 4-5 at the home game of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League against the Hanwha Eagles at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field on Sunday, but has maintained its position. The team posted 76 wins, two draws and 50 losses (0.603).안전놀이터
Samsung Lions ranks second. The Korean team has 71 wins, two draws and 56 losses (0.559), a 5.5 game gap between the two. The third-ranked LG Twins is chasing the second-ranked Samsung by 3.5 games with 66 wins, two draws and 58 losses (0.532). Teams ranking first to third from KIA to Samsung have somewhat entered the fall baseball stability zone.
Some teams have moved away from the competition. The team is the Kiwoom Heroes. Kiwoom, the lowest ranking team with young players’ power, has lost 53 games and 73 games (0.421) recently. In reality, it is not easy to catch up with middle-ranked teams.
The problem is that there are six teams, from the fourth-ranked Doosan Bears to the ninth-ranked NC Dinos. Doosan, which already has a gap of 4.5 games with the third-ranked LG, has 64 wins, two draws and 65 losses (0.496), and lost at the match against Samsung in Daegu on Monday, facing the biggest crisis of a five-game losing streak and collapsing winning percentage.
Up until just a few weeks ago, Doosan was one of the teams that continued to compete for the top spot. However, Doosan has been facing a slight change in mood since last month, and now it is in a position to worry about falling into the bottom ranks. Doosan’s harsh reality is that it is closer to ninth-ranked NC (3.5 games apart) than third-ranked LG.
In addition, not only the fifth-ranked KT Wiz but also middle and lower-ranked teams, which are closely trailing Doosan, are maintaining good trends recently. KT lost at the Sajik Lotte Giants match on Sunday, but continued its winning streak since late summer and maintained a 0.5-game gap with Doosan by recording 62 wins, 2 draws and 64 losses (0.492).
The Hanwha Eagles, which ranks sixth with 59 wins, two draws and 63 losses (0.484), has displayed its commitment to the autumn baseball league by winning two consecutive games. The seventh-ranked Lotte Giants also showed a hope with 57 wins, three draws and 63 losses (0.475). All three teams, including KT, Hanwha, and Lotte, have shown winning percentage of over 60 percent in recent 10 games.
SSG Landers, which was once in the upper middle and fell to eighth place, is in a bad situation just like Doosan. After losing at the match against LG on Monday, SSG plunged into a three-game losing streak to 59 wins, 1 draw and 67 losses (0.468). In just the last 10 games, the team has won two games and lost eight, with a winning rate of only 20 percent. Major players’ injuries and imbalance in pitching and batting have occurred all at once. At the match against LG at Jamsil LG on Wednesday last week, the team failed to display any strength at all, causing the team to fall to ninth place by completely losing 0-5.
ninth-ranked NC is also continuing its hope. It was believed that the team would abandon its fall baseball games early on, as it lost 11 consecutive games last month, but it has recently won five consecutive games. It completely erased its gap versus eighth-ranked SSG with 57 wins, two draws and 65 losses (0.467). Even without injured players such as Son Ah-seop and Park Geon-woo, the team is threatening middle-ranked teams.
Currently, Doosan has played the most games (131 games), and Lotte has played the fewest games (123 games). As the six teams are closely spaced, the ranking table could fluctuate at any time. It remains to be seen which team will be able to wrap up the regular season with a smile.
Meanwhile, the remaining eight teams, excluding Doosan and Samsung, will play on the 5th. In Gwangju, Hanwha and KIA will start Jaime Barria and Eric Lauer, respectively, and in Sajik, they will face KT Joey-hyun and Lotte Jung Hyun-soo. SSG Kim Kwang-hyun and LG Choi Won-tae will meet in Jamsil, while Kiwoom Ha Young-min and NC Lee Jae-hak will take the starting mound in Changwon.