Everyone is being dazzled by the magic played by professional baseball team KT.
The 2023 season of the KBO League is coming to a close.
The hottest team at the moment is definitely KT.
KT, which experienced a dizzying fall to the point of being ranked last at one point in May, is currently ranked 2nd.
They recorded only a win-loss deficit in April and May, but their momentum skyrocketed starting in June when summer arrived.
They achieved 15 wins (8 losses) in June, 13 wins (6 losses) in July, and 18 wins (4 losses) in August, climbing the rankings at a tremendous pace.
As of the 30th, the gap with first place LG is 4.5 games. 토토사이트
At one point, LG’s chances of winning the regular season seemed high when the gap was eight games over second place, but the situation changed rapidly.
LG came into KT’s range. LG is getting impatient as they are being chased.
KT coach Lee Kang-cheol, who stands at the center of the magic, is also equally surprising.
The head coach jokingly said, “Didn’t everyone say that (our team) would come up, as was the prediction before the season?” and then added, “I think it’s ridiculous too.
The win-loss margin was ‘-14’, but now it has already reached ‘+15’. “Does this make sense?” he said, sticking out his tongue.
However, this does not mean that he completely underestimated the possibility of his students’ rebound.
Coach Lee said, “Actually, even when we were in 10th place, I thought, ‘We’re not at this level.’
And although it was at the bottom, the gap with the middle rank was not large.
I felt like it would be worth a try as long as I didn’t fall any further,” he confessed.
The inflection point for the team selected by the head coach was the replacement of foreign pitchers.
On June 9th, they parted ways with Bo Schulser, who was underperforming, and brought in William Cuevas, a familiar face.
Starting with his first appearance against Samsung in Suwon on June 17 (3 runs in 4⅔ innings), he showed career-high performance with 8 wins, no losses, and an ERA of 2.63 (22 earned runs in 75⅓ innings) in 12 games. In fact, he is no different from KT’s ace.
Coach Lee said, “The players probably thought it wouldn’t be easy when things didn’t work out in the beginning.
But when Cuevas came, it changed to ‘Oh, it’s working?’” he said with a smile, adding, “As much as things didn’t work out in the beginning, things started to work out well on the contrary.
I think the word ‘resilience’ would be the most appropriate.
He smiled and said, “With the magic that captivates everyone, we take the lead at the end.
” The competition was also predicted to be ‘fun.’
Coach Lee indirectly expressed his desire for first place, saying, “I think it will be fun.”
He said, “It will be a struggle for the parties involved, but not only for us, but for the entire league, it will be really fun for the fans.” .
There is one variable.
Coach Lee pointed out the key point, saying, “How the (Hangzhou) Asian Games will work is important. That’s why we decided to accumulate as much money as we can.”
KT is the league’s hold king, Park Young-hyun. Kang Baek-ho, who has had time to regroup, is selected to the national team.
Other teams must also compete for the most important ranking without their core resources.
The key point is how to fill that void.
There are only 6 matches remaining between LG and KT, which will attract everyone’s attention.
The two teams were tied 5-5 in the previous 10 meetings.
There is a high probability that the winner of the remaining series will actually take control of the regular season. The two will meet in Suwon next week, from September 5th to 7th.
Coach Lee Kang-cheol did not hide his expectations, saying, “If we do well this week, it will be fun to go next week.”