Tigers seeking to stretch winning streak vs. last-place club in KBO

Kia Tigers players celebrate their 5-4 win over the SSG Landers in their Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, June 21. Courtesy of the Tigers

The hottest team in Korean baseball will visit the coldest one to begin the new week.

The Kia Tigers will ride their season-best six-game winning streak into a three-game series against the Kiwoom Heroes, starting Tuesday at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.

It will be the first leg of the Tigers' six-game road trip to the nation's capital. They will visit the LG Twins for three games at Jamsil Baseball Stadium from Friday to Sunday.

The Tigers have not lost since June 13 and own the best record in June in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) at 12-5-1 (wins-losses-ties). That run has pushed them to fourth place in the standings at 38-33-2, just 4 1/2 games back of the first-place Hanwha Eagles.

The Heroes, on the other hand, have the league's worst record at 21-53-2. They have managed just one win in their past 10 games.

The middle of the standings in the 10-team league remains crowded, with the seventh-place KT Wiz (37-35-3) only 1 1/2 games behind the Tigers. Teams will trade places in a hurry with a winning streak or a losing streak of any length.

The Eagles (43-29-1) have managed to stay on top for over a week now, with the Twins (42-30-2) behind by one game. The Eagles will be on the road for all six games this week -- three against the streaky Samsung Lions (38-35-1) in the southeastern city of Daegu and three more against the SSG Landers (36-34-3) in Incheon, just west of Seoul.

The Wiz, with just one win in five games last week, have lost steam after climbing to fourth place earlier this month, and they will have a tough week ahead. They will host the Twins for three games in Suwon, south of Seoul, before visiting the third-place Lotte Giants (41-31-3) for three in Busan, some 320 kilometers southeast of the capital.