온라인카지노The ‘masters of tradition’ KIA and Samsung are tied for ninth and 10th place. This has never happened before in the 41-year history of the KBO.
KIA is in ninth place with 30 wins, 38 losses, one draw and a winning percentage of 0.441. Samsung is in last place with 28 wins, 45 losses, and a 0.384 winning percentage. Both teams have 4.5 games in hand. Kia is closer to fifth-place Doosan, which is 3.5 games ahead of last-place Samsung. However, if recent form is anything to go by, the danger is that one long losing streak could give Samsung a chance to catch up, rather than chase for fifth or sixth place.
Choi Won-joon, Na Sung-beom, and Kim Do-young are back. However, the bullpen has been overburdened by the collapse of the starting rotation, and the mound is struggling overall. The batting lineup is definitely stronger, but there are many games where the returning trio doesn’t have synergy.
They took a step back last week with a 1-4 loss. They started the first three games of a nine-game series away from home in the Seoul metropolitan area not too badly with a 1-2 record. The fact that it was difficult to expect a winning series against the leader LG in the first place proves KIA’s bad situation. The three-game series against second-placed SSG starting on the 4th is no different. Jung-hae-young has been added to the squad and Kim Sun-bin is likely to return, but the SSG squad is strong.
Samsung is even more depressed than Kia. It was the bridesmaid to Hanwha’s record-breaking winning streak in a three-game home series from 30-2 last month. For the last three weeks in a row, the team has lost through the middle of the week and Saturday, only to win on Sunday. By now, their win-loss margin had dropped to -17. Eight games out of fifth place. It’s not time to give up on the postseason, but if they slip further, it could be really tough. For the first time in the franchise’s history, last place is in jeopardy.
Samsung’s bullpen is weak and their main hitters are struggling. The pattern of blowing winnable games and losing lethargically in the aftermath continued. The team has been criticised for years for not maximising the benefits of the hitter-friendly Daegu Samsung Lions Park. Chasing down ninth-placed KIA doesn’t look easy right now either. A 4.5-game gap is nothing to sneeze at.
The two teams are traditional baseball stalwarts, ranking first and second in all-time Korean Series wins. Kia has won 11 titles, including its predecessor, Hattae, and Samsung has eight. Nearly half of the KBO’s 19-year history has been a happy ending for both teams. The teams even met in the Korean Series in 1986, 1987, and 1993. On all three occasions, Hae-tae had the last laugh. For now, it’s “latte baseball” and the days of tiger cigarettes.
However, Kia hasn’t added another Korean Series title since 2017 and Samsung since 2015. To put it bluntly, Kia hasn’t made the postseason since winning the title in 2009, with the exception of 2017. Samsung has also been a consistent underdog since their last win, with the exception of a “sparkling” second-place finish in the 2021 pennant race. Since the mid-2010s, neither team has been a household name.
Both the front office and the field have been working hard, reflecting, and preparing again. There is a second half, so it would be cruel to conclude that they will finish the season as they are. Realistically, KIA is not far off the top five. There is a lot of speculation that they will have a chance once they are at full strength. Samsung, on the other hand, doesn’t have the strength to bolster dramatically and is already far behind the top five.
Kia’s Kim Jong-guk and Samsung’s Park Jin-man are in their second and first year respectively, so they don’t have a lot of experience. It’s a brutal 2023 season for both managers. Not much is going right. The biggest victims, of course, are the fans who support both teams.