Miraculous Kia, but what if it was the Korean Series

We won, but we left with a sticky mess

In the regular season, there are games with relatively objective power differentials. But the postseason is different. The best teams in the league face off against each other. There’s not much of an objective power differential, so one mistake can often change the outcome of a game.

Kia snapped a three-game losing streak with a dramatic 4-3 victory over Kiwoom at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on April 28. After falling behind 0-3 in the eighth inning, Choi Won-joon hit a game-winning two-run shot, and two batters later in the ninth inning, Kim Sun-bin hit a dramatic tying solo home run, followed by Byun Woo-hyuk’s game-winning solo home run, to win the game 4-3. With the win, KIA reached the 60-win plateau for the season.

There have been quite a few instances in the KBO regular season where a team with 60 wins has gone on to win the regular season title. Excluding the post-war years of 1985-1988 and 1999-2000, when the league was split into two divisions, the team with 60 wins has finished first in the regular season 26 out of 34 times. That’s a staggering 76.5 percent. Kia has a five-game lead over second-place LG, which is by no means a slam dunk considering the number of games remaining.

That means a direct trip to the Korean Series is likely, which is why the three-game series against Kiwoom in Gocheok from the 26th to the 28th is worth revisiting. They lost on the 26th and 27th, and came back from the brink of defeat on the 28th. Kia’s struggles were partly due to bullpen issues and a batting lineup that hasn’t been at its best, but ultimately it was the defense.

High-scoring games don’t happen often in the postseason, especially in the Korean Series. That’s because there are so many quality pitchers. The saying ‘don’t trust the offense in the short game’ is true to a certain extent if you look at the historical scores. That’s why defensive baseball is the key to winning a series. However, Kia had a big hole in their defense, and it wasn’t just the backups. They played almost all of their starters for all three games.

After a shaky defense in the first two innings on the 26th, KIA had a difficult game on the 27th as they made a series of errors. This eventually led to the loss. The 28th was no different. On that day, KIA starter Yang Hyun-jong gave up three runs in six innings. However, all three runs were unearned. They were caused by defensive errors.

From the first inning on, defensive mistakes were the culprit. Lee Joo-hyung’s line drive to third base was not caught by Kim Do-young at first, allowing the runner to score. Apart from her strong offensive performance, Kim has been struggling to catch 카지노 커뮤니티 bound balls this season. It was his 23rd error of the season, which led to Song Sung-moon’s RBI single to right-center and Choi Joo-hwan’s RBI double two batters later. If it wasn’t for the error, the runs wouldn’t have counted.

Trailing 0-2 in the fourth inning, errors came again. After giving up a double to Choi Joo-hwan to right-center field one out later, Yang Hyun-jong induced Kim Jae-hyun to hit a grounder to shortstop. The ball was fast but not out of shortstop Park Chan-ho’s range, but Park didn’t catch it at first, and when he did, he threw it back to first, but Kim’s feet got to first base first. It was a moment when Yang Hyun-jong’s strength was bound to run out.

No matter how good a pitcher is, when he gives up a run, he falters. The opponent, on the other hand, is energized. That’s why defense is the first thing to go in a big game. However, Kia’s defense has been shaky all season. And it shows no signs of being fixed. Right fielder Kim Sun-bin’s range is narrowing, and the first basemen lack experience with pattern plays. Third baseman Kim Do-young continues to struggle at the plate. Socrates and Na Sung-beom don’t have much range on defense.

If this Gocheok series is the Korean Series, it makes me dizzy. While the offense carried them all the way in this series, the defense is going to cost them a lot of runs in the Korean Series, where the pitching will be better. Of course, in the postseason, where the roster is more generous, the defense will be better. But that doesn’t mean they can’t send out players like Hong Jong-pyo, Park Jung-woo, Kim Ho-ryung, and others with good defense first. This issue must be resolved if Kia is to make a real run at the title. Kia travels to Gwangju with homework to do.