Baseball season to resume this week after heat-forced stoppage
The ground at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Wednesday, after a scheduled Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game between the NC Dinos and Doosan Bears was canceled due to severe heat / Yonhap
The Korean baseball season will resume this week after a record-breaking heat wave forced cancellations of nearly every game last week.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) teams will return to the field Tuesday across the nation following their unexpected summer break. Only three out of five games slated for last Tuesday were played, and then the league decided to scrap all the remaining games of the week amid unrelenting heat nationwide.
The KBO also announced last week all remaining games will start at 7 p.m. until further notice. Normally, weekday games begin at 6:30 p.m., and games on weekends and holidays during the summer months begin at 6 p.m.
The first heat-related cancellation came on Aug. 1, with two games being scratched, followed by another game the following day.
The Kia Tigers and the NC Dinos have yet to play a game in August due to those weather-related interruptions. Their last games were on July 31.
Both clubs will open the new week at home, with the Tigers hosting the Samsung Lions at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in the southwestern city of Gwangju and the Dinos bringing the league-leading KT Wiz to Changwon NC Park in the southeastern city of Changwon.
Both the Tigers and the Dinos had been treading water in the days leading up to mass cancellations, and a midseason break might have given them a chance to take a breath and regroup for the stretch drive. At 52-46-2 (wins-losses-ties), the Tigers occupy the fifth and final postseason spot, four games ahead of the Hanwha Eagles (47-49-3). The Dinos are in seventh place at 43-50-2 and trail the Tigers by 6 1/2 games.
Prior to the stoppage, the Wiz had been on a six-game winning streak that pushed them into first place at 59-36-2. It will bear watching if they will be able to pick up where they left off or if they will experience difficulty finding their good form again.
After the Dinos series, the Wiz will come home to Suwon, just south of Seoul, to host last-place Kiwoom Heroes (38-64-2) from Friday to Sunday.
The Doosan Bears (52-45-4) had the second-longest active winning streak behind the Wiz with a three-game run, which lifted them past the Tigers for fourth place. The Bears are also closing in on the slumping LG Twins (55-45-1), who have three losses and one tie in their past four games, and are clinging to third place by 1 1/2 games.
The Bears' schedule will see them host the Eagles for three games at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul before traveling to Gwangju for three games against the Tigers.
The Twins will stay in Seoul the whole week against the two bottom feeders -- with three against the Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome and three more against ninth-place SSG Landers (39-60-4) at Jamsil.
The Lions (59-39-2) were in first place in the final week of July but have fallen behind the Wiz by 1 1/2 games after losing two straight contests. After playing the Tigers, the Lions will host the Eagles in the southeastern city of Daegu.