Eagles' recent upturn makes baseball fun

Players of the Hanwha Eagles celebrate after defeating the Samsung Lions 4-3 at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, Friday. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

The Hanwha Eagles have rolled up their sleeves and continue onward as the cellar team in the Korea Baseball Organization has won nine games out of the past 10.

After sweeping its three-game series against the Samsung Lions this past weekend, the Daejeon-based team extended its winning streak to four, recording 20 wins, one tie and 32 losses.

The Eagles have been the doormat in the league. On May 18 as they were a whopping eight games behind the ninth-place KT Wiz in the 10-team league with a winning percentage of .243. However, now they are only two games behind the Wiz and only five 1/2 games back of the fourth-place LG Twins (24-1-25).

Getting closer to coming out of the cellar, everything is on the upswing for the Eagles. Though the Eagles’ pitchers have the highest ERA of 6.28 in the league, they have recorded an ERA of 3.72 in the past six games.

In batting, first baseman Kim Tae-kyun and imported player Wilin Rosario helped the team the most. Kim batting .529 with two home runs and 19 RBIs, and Rosario with a .349 batting average, one home run and 14 RBIs, both in the past 10 games.

It remains to be seen how high the Eagles can climb in the games this week. They will host the eighth-place Kia Tigers (22-1-28) at their home Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park during the week and play the Twins on the weekend. They have lost every game to the Twins in their past four showdowns this season while they had two wins and three losses against the Tigers.

While the Eagles appear to have ended a difficult stretch, the defending champion Doosan Bears have been cruising at the top with the most wins in the league (38-1-15).

Though the Bears lost two games in a three game-series against the second-place NC Dinos (30-1-19) early last week, they swept another series with the fifth-place SK Wyverns (26-0-28) over the weekend, extending their lead in the league to six games over the Dinos.

Starting Tuesday, the Bears will have a three-game series against the Wiz in Suwon and will host the seventh-place Lotte Giants (24-0-29) at their home Jamsil Baseball Stadium over the weekend.

The Dinos will play a three-game series with the third-place Nexen Heroes (28-1-24) starting Tuesday and another series with the Wyverns over the weekend.

The Lions (25-0-29) will play an away series with the Twins in Seoul starting Tuesday and then play a series with the Tigers in Gwangju starting Friday. After having a three-game series with the Dinos during the week, the Heroes will host the Wiz at their home Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul for another series this weekend.