The race for the top spot is either over or not.
Last-place Kiwoom lost 5-13 against KIA in Gochuk on the 29th, ending a four-game winning streak that began against Busan Kiwoom on the 19th. 55 wins, 79 losses, and 3 draws. Kiwoom now has seven games left. It seems unlikely that they will be able to break through. By the 29th, they were two games behind eighth-place Samsung (55 wins, 75 losses, and one draw) and ninth-place Hanwha (53 wins, 73 losses, and six draws).
Samsung has 13 games left and Hanwha has 12. For Kiwoom to overcome the two-game deficit, they need to win a lot of games, and they have the least chance of doing so. Samsung and Hanwha are likely to fight for eighth and ninth place with virtually half a game in hand.
Crucially, their head-to-head matchups are few and far between. Samsung-Hanwha in Daegu on April 4-5 and Kiwoom-Samsung in Gochuk on April 10. Kiwoom will realistically have to focus on their four shooters for the remainder of the season.
Since the 10-team-144-game system began in 2015, the only time the bottom team had a 4-percent winning percentage was the 2018 NC (58 wins, 85 losses, 1 draw, 0.406 winning percentage). Last place has always been a three-way tie. Even in 2020, two teams (SK and Hanwha) had a three-way tie.
When the last place team has a winning percentage of 4, it means that the gap between them and the top teams is small. It can bring a healthy dose of tension to the league. This season, Kiwoom will attempt to finish at the bottom of the table for the second time ever. Despite losing 29 games, they still have a 0.410 winning percentage.
Kiwoom’s chances of making the quarters are good. They only need to win two of their remaining seven games. With 57 wins, 79 losses, and 3 draws, that’s a winning percentage of 0.404. At this point, even if they lose all seven games, they’d still have a 55W86L3D record and a 0.390 winning percentage. That’s a full point better than their last-place finish in 2011 (51 wins, 80 losses, and 2 draws), when they had a 0.389 winning percentage.토토사이트
It is important to get out of last place, and it is important to finish the season with a winning percentage in the top four, but it is more important to reestablish the direction of the club. MBC Sports Plus commentator Lee Sang-hoon, who broadcast the KIA game against Gochuk on the 29th, also wondered what purpose Kiwoom will operate with rather than simply focusing on the remaining games.
It seems that Kiwoom is running the season with an eye on the future, regardless of the results. With Kim Hye-sung also leaving for the national team, there are more players in the Kiwoom lineup whose future is uncertain. Kim Dong-heon is also on the national team, but even veteran catcher Lee Ji-young is nowhere to be seen.
Choi Won-tae’s gift, Lee Joo-hyung, has already established himself as the go-to hitter, and more recently, outfielder Park Soo-jong and catcher Kim Xiang have stood out. Kim is backed up at second base by Kim Byung-hwi. In the bullpen were Joo Seung-woo and Oh Sang-won, both of whom played in the Futures League. With them and 14 other prospects, it’s comforting to know that the 2024 season will be a time when the future is concrete.