Hanwha Eagles players celebrate their 6-4 win over the Lotte Giants in a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on April 23, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, April 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Teams in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will reach a crucial early-season point this week as they embark on a run of nine straight games.
KBO teams usually get Monday off each week. However, with the May 5 Children’s Day holiday — often the biggest day during a KBO regular season — falling on a Monday this year, teams will play their three-game midweek series from Monday to Wednesday next week, instead of the usual Tuesday to Thursday window.
This will mean a gauntlet of nine games in nine days, from Tuesday to May 7, barring inclement weather.
The league-leading LG Twins hit a speed bump last week, losing consecutive series against the NC Dinos and then the Kia Tigers. They still have the best record at 20-9-0 (wins-losses-ties), but their lead over second-place Samsung Lions (17-12-0) is now just three games.
The surging Hanwha Eagles (17-13-0) are a half game back of the Lions in third place, and they will host the Twins for three games to open this week in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul.
When the two teams first met from March 25 to 27, the Twins swept the three-game set while giving up only one run.
The Eagles are a different team now, though. They are batting .263 as a team in April, better than the Twins’ mark of .255. Slugger Roh Si-hwan has overcome a slow start and belted six home runs in his past 10 games. Estevan Florial batted only .143 (4-for-28) in March but is hitting .312 in April, during which he put together a 13-game hit streak. Florial leads the Eagles with 33 hits, a remarkable turnaround for a player once thought to be in danger of getting cut.
The Lotte Giants, the only other team sitting above .500 in winning percentage (16-13-1), will visit last-place Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul to start this week.
Also for the Tuesday-Thursday series this week, the KT Wiz will visit the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul for what would have been Wiz third baseman Heo Kyoung-min’s return to his old stomping ground.
The All-Star played for the Bears from 2012 to 2024 before signing with the Wiz as a free agent last winter. However, the Wiz removed him from their active roster Monday due to a left hamstring injury.
A Wiz official said Heo will be sidelined for about two weeks.
In his first meeting against the Bears last month at the Wiz’s home in Suwon, just south of the capital city, Heo batted 5-for-13 in three games as the Wiz went 2-1-0.
So far this season, Heo is batting .301 in 26 games while playing his typically strong defense at the hot corner.
The Twins and the Bears will square off in their annual Children’s Day series. Their Children’s Day games were rained out in both 2023 and 2024. The Bears are 15-11-0 in their all-time May 5 showdowns.
(Yonhap)
