KBO's Seoul rivals set for final 3-game series at historic stadium
Doosan Bears players celebrate after a win against KT Wiz at Suwon KT Wiz Park in Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Yonhap
The two Seoul-based rivals in Korean baseball are set for their final regular-season series this week in the historic stadium that they share, while the battle for the top spot in the standings will continue into the final full month of the campaign.
The LG Twins and the Doosan Bears will meet for a three-game set at Jamsil Baseball Stadium from Tuesday to Thursday. They are the co-tenants of the stadium that will be torn down after this year, with the Bears serving as the home team this week.
This will be the final week in which the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) teams will play a pair of regularly scheduled three-game sets. Starting Sept. 8, teams will play makeup games — those that were rained out or canceled due to a record-breaking heat wave earlier this year — against different opponents in different cities almost every day.
LG Twins players celebrate after a home run during a game against NC Dinos at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
The Twins-Bears series will be more than just about sentimentality, as both teams are jostling for postseason spots.
The Twins are in fourth place at 64-51-1 (wins-losses-ties), trailing the Kia Tigers (63-50-2) by a fraction in winning percentage. The Bears (61-52-4) sit two games behind the Twins to hold down the fifth and final postseason spot and they can overtake their rival with a sweep this week.
The Twins hold a 7-4-1 edge in their season series so far.
The competition for first place is also heating up, reminiscent of 2021.
Back then, the Samsung Lions and the KT Wiz finished the regular season with an identical record and needed a one-game tiebreaker to determine who would finish first and earn a bye to the Korean Series. The Wiz prevailed 1-0 then and went on to win the franchise's first championship as well.
The Lions (68-44-3) enter the new week clinging to first place by a half game over the Wiz (66-43-3). The Lions have won five straight games and will host the Lotte Giants for three games in the southeastern city of Daegu before visiting Seoul to play the Twins for three more games.
The Wiz will have a three-game home series against the Hanwha Eagles in Suwon, just south of Seoul, and then travel south to take on the Tigers for three games in Gwangju.
A sizable gap remains between the top five and the bottom five in the standings. The NC Dinos (51-58-2), despite winning three straight games, remain eight games behind the Bears, the same as last Monday.
The Giants (50-61-2) and the Eagles (49-62-3), who had been in a virtual tie with the Dinos last week, have all but played their way out of contention by dropping four straight and six straight games, respectively.
This has been a particularly disappointing season for the Eagles, who were the Korean Series runners-up to the Twins last year but have not been over .500 in winning percentage since they were 39-38-2 on July 3.
Since July 4, the Eagles have posted the worst record in the KBO at 10-24-1.
The SSG Landers (48-65-5) and the Kiwoom Heroes (42-76-3) still occupy the last two spots in the standings, with the Heroes, having dropped four straight games, destined for their fourth consecutive last-place finish.
The Landers have played better of late, though, posting the KBO's second-best record in August at 11-6-1.