Dinos continue winning streak to 10 games
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Kim Sung-wook of the NC Dinos hits a three-run homer in the eighth inning during a KBO gameagainst the SK Wyverns at Incheon SK Happy Dream Park, Sunday. The Dinos won 11-8. / Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
The NC Dinos in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League have extended their winning streak to 10 games, after a come-from-behind 11-8 win against the SK Wyverns, Sunday.
At Incheon SK Happy Dream Park, the Dinos were losing to the Wyverns 1-7 at the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Changwon-based team turned the tables, scoring four in the seventh and a whopping six in the eighth, including leftfielder Kim Sung-wook’s three-run homer.
It was the team’s 36th win while taking one tie and 19 losses in 56 games. With the win, the Dinos, who joined the KBO League in 2013, set up a record in their franchise history and narrowed their gap with the league leading Doosan Bears (42-1-17) to within four games.
“The win was possible because the players didn’t give up,” Dinos manager Kim Kyung-moon said after Sunday’s game, “I really have a dim memory of this kind of come-from-behind victory and as a manager I would like to express my gratitude to the players.”
Entering June, the Dinos have beaten every team in their path _ starting from two wins against the Bears in a three-game series, they have wins against the Lotte Giants (27-0-32), the Nexen Heroes (30-1-28) and the Wyverns (27-0-33).
One of the reasons behind the Dinos’ success lies in batting.
Last week, the Dinos’ hitters had a robust batting average of .327 with 14 home runs. Especially, third baseman Park Sok-min, who joined the Dinos during the off-season, helped the most, recording a .439 batting average with 18 hits, including five homers and 21 RBIs over the last 10 games. Besides Park, last season’s MVP, first baseman Eric Thames, also led the team’s offense, adding three homers this month. Thames now leads the league in home runs with 18, followed by Kim Jae-hwan of the Bears and Luis Jimenez of the Twins who have each hit 17.
The Dinos will have a three-game series against the fourth-place LG Twins (27-1-28) starting Tuesday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. Over the weekend, they will have another away series with the ninth-place KT Wiz (24-2-34) in Suwon.
Another hot team in the league is the ninth-place Hanwha Eagles (24-1-34).
At their home park, Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park in Daejeon, Sunday, the Eagles, who had been the cellar team in the 10-team league from the season’s start, finally succeeded in sharing the bottom of the standings with the Wiz after defeating the Twins 6-5.
Now the Eagles, who had eight wins and two losses over the last 10 games, aim to come out of the cellar against the Wiz in Suwon starting Tuesday.
In contrast, the Wyverns have gone in the other direction from the Eagles, winning only one game in their past 10 due to their meager offense.
It remains to be seen whether the Incheon-based team can find a breakthrough while playing two away series this week against the fifth-place Samsung Lions (28-0-32) in Daegu and the Giants in Busan.