After three days of sweet rest, the KIA Tigers took one step further toward the championship. Now the magic number is down to five.
KIA beat Lotte Giants of 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League 10-0, which was held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Sunday. Starter Eric Lauer pitched six scoreless innings and leadoff pitcher Park Chan-ho who had four hits to secure its fifth consecutive win.
KIA, which had a three-day rest after the game against the Kiwoom Heroes on Saturday, summoned Lotte to its home ground and scored from the beginning. Park Chan-ho’s double and Kim Do-young’s sacrifice fly to left field led the first inning. In the second inning, Kim Sun-bin, Lee Woo-sung, Lee Chang-jin and Park Chan-ho combined for four hits and three runs to lead the game 4-0.
In the fifth inning, KIA took advantage of the opponent team’s defense error with runners on the second and third bases with one out and added two more runs to pull down Lotte starter Kim Jin-wook. In the sixth inning, Park Chan-ho and Socrates Brito scored one run on consecutive hits against Han Hyun-hee, widening the gap to 7-0.
KIA, which added one run with Na Sung-bum’s solo shot in the seventh inning, made it 10-0 by adding two runs with hits by Kim Do-young, Seo Geon-chang and Han Jun-su in the eighth inning. Meanwhile, Eric Lauer allowed one run in six innings and Jang Hyun-sik, Kwak Do-gyu, and Kim Ki-hoon pitched one scoreless inning side by side to block Lotte’s batters. During nine innings, he showed overwhelming pitching by sweeping 13 strikeouts instead of just two hits. 메이저사이트
Kia, which has a perfect balance of pitching and hitting, showed off its peak condition by allowing seven wins and one loss in eight games in September due to its victory over Lotte. Leading Kia had a magic number of 14 as recently as the end of its last game in August, but reduced seven by eight games. The second-ranked Samsung Lions lost to KIA on August 1 and the NC Dinos on August 7, successfully erasing two more magic numbers.
KIA will win the title on its own if it adds five more wins in the remaining 11 games. If Samsung loses five games, it will be confirmed to win the title in the same way. If KIA wins three consecutive games and Samsung wins two consecutive games, all the magic numbers will disappear.
If the closest time is calculated under these conditions, the result is an away game for the KT Wiz on September 16. Even if Samsung wins one game and one loss, if KIA wins four consecutive games, it will be decided to win the title at the away game of SSG Landers on September 17. For KIA, although the early winner of the nine consecutive home games was regrettably eliminated, a situation has been created during the Chuseok holiday (Sept. 16-18), a national holiday, instead of enjoying the maximum joy.
Kia, which won the combined title in 2017, is set to win its first regular season title in seven years and its 12th Korean Series title. Attention is focusing on whether Kia will be able to make a memorable year by making a stellar finale in the remaining season.