It is the best-ever five-game series. The Doosan Bears, currently ranked fourth, are in danger of not being able to confirm their fall baseball games on their own.
Doosan lost 1-7 in the final game of the season between the Hanwha Eagles and the team of the “2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League” held at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 3rd. Doosan needed to run away by overpowering Hanwha, its competitor in the top five, but lost four consecutive games helplessly.
What’s more painful is that Doosan lost to Hanwha because it lost the opportunity to make it to the top five teams on its own. Doosan has 64 wins, 64 losses and two draws, and a winning percentage of 0.500 through 130 matches during the regular season. Assuming that Doosan wins all of the remaining 14 matches, Doosan can achieve a winning percentage of 0.549 while harvesting 78 wins.
The problem is that Doosan’s remaining games are too few than its competitors. KT, ranked fifth, currently has a winning percentage of 0.496 with 62 wins, 63 losses, and 2 draws through 127 games, and if it wins all of its remaining 17 games, it will earn 79 wins and have a winning percentage of 0.556. The same goes for Hanwha, ranked sixth. Hanwha has a winning percentage of 0.479 with 58 wins, 63 losses, and 2 draws through 123 games so far, and if it wins all 21 games, it will have 79 wins, just like KT’s 0.556.
The eighth-ranked Lotte, the team with the most remaining games in the league, is also a threat to Doosan. Currently, Lotte has 56 wins, 63 losses, 3 draws and a 0.471 win rate in 122 games. If Lotte wins all of its remaining 22 games, it is the same as Doosan with 78 wins, but it has one more draw, leading Doosan with 0.553 in terms of winning rate by 166. SSG, ranked seventh, currently has 59 wins, 66 losses and 1 draw in 126 games, and even if it wins all 18 games, it is 77 wins, which is the most likely to be eliminated among the five-tier competitors.
Doosan will play only five games in two weeks until next week. Doosan should first catch all the games in a vague manner and hope other teams will accumulate as many losses as possible. Only then will it be able to increase its chance to advance to the top five teams.
The starting rotation will be led by Jordan Balazovic and Kwak Bin at a time when alternative foreigners, Keisho Shirakawa, have ended the season due to an elbow ligament injury, and Brandon Waddell, who left in June due to a left shoulder scapular muscle injury, is still unable to catch the ball. The vacancy tries to put pitchers in good condition at that time. For now, the three games this week were confirmed as three domestic starters, including Choi Won-joon, Choi Seung-yong and Kwak Bin, but the first runner Choi Won-joon failed to break the team’s losing streak as he allowed only three runs in four ⅓ innings.
No matter how urgent it is, he is not considering the abnormality of putting Balazovic, who will not take the mound this week, into the bullpen. “Balazovic threw it on Sunday (against Sajik Lotte on the 1st), so he can stand by (with a bullpen). Since there will be a match against Kiwoom next week, we will have Balazovic take the mound next week. (Kwak) Bin and Balazovic will return to their normal rotation, and the rest of the pitchers will be flexible,” Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop said.
The stagnant batting line hoped to recover enough and rebound again as there were more days off than there were days off until next week. Eight players who prescribed Oh Jae-won’s sleeping pills, retired Doosan player, are tied to rehabilitation throughout the season, while young fielders, who were considered as the main players, such as Kim Dae-han and Park Joon-young, have not been able to energize the team at all due to sluggishness and injuries. Most of the main hitters, including Yang Eui-ji, Kim Jae-hwan, Heo Kyung-min, Jung Soo-bin and Yang Seok-hwan, are veterans in their 30s, and the aftermath of playing full without being replaced unless they are injured throughout the season is a last-minute decline in physical strength. 먹튀검증
“We played too many games. I think playing three to four games a week will definitely help us physically. It doesn’t mean that our players don’t practice just because they don’t have games, and I don’t think there will be a big problem in maintaining the sense of hitting because they practice indoors,” coach Lee said, hoping that the players will use their given rest days wisely.
Doosan will play its last away game against the second-ranked Samsung Lions in Daegu on Wednesday. Doosan was absolutely inferior to Samsung this year by posting three wins and 11 losses. Whenever Doosan meets Samsung, its starting pitcher is sick and has been replaced early, which often causes complicated matches. The team that Doosan meets when it desperately needs to avoid losing consecutive games is Samsung, which will likely cause headache. Doosan announced Choi Seung-yong and Samsung announced Hwang Dong-jae as starting pitchers. After the game against Samsung, Doosan will take a two-day break and play against KT in Suwon on Wednesday. Doosan needs to secure the match between Samsung and KT to increase its chances of advancing to the semifinals again.