KIA Tigers coach Kim Jong-guk expressed regret over the loss in the first game of the second half. He emphasized the part where he failed to make use of scoring chances properly in the early game and raised his voice saying that batters need to exert themselves.
KIA lost 2-5 in the 10th game of the season against the Doosan Bears in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 21st. With two consecutive losses, the ranking fell one notch to 7th place, 0.5 games behind KT Wiz.아톰카지노
KIA’s defeat was the slump in the batting line. In the bottom of the second inning, Lee Woo-sung scored an RBI against Doosan ace Raul Alcantara at second base, getting the first run and taking the lead, but after that, he struggled to score additional points.
In particular, it was regrettable that Socrates withdrew due to a foul fly by the third baseman at the bottom of the third inning with two outs loaded. In the bottom of the 5th inning, with 1 out and 2 base, both Kim Do-young and Na Seong-beom bowed their heads as they ended up with a fly ball in the infield.
Starting pitcher Mario Sanchez fought hard until the 4th inning, blocking the Doosan lineup without allowing a run, but Jose Rojas in the top of the 5th inning and Kyung-Min Heo in the top of the 6th allowed home runs, and the game turned 1-2.
Even when the KIA bench was behind, Ji-min Choi, Ki-young Lim, and Sang-hyun Jeon put in Seung-jo pitchers, revealing their will not to give up the game. However, in the top of the 7th inning with two outs and bases loaded, Choi Ji-min hit Doosan Park Jun-young with a 3-RBI triple, and the flow completely switched to Doosan.
The batting line still didn’t work. Although he made up for one point with Socrates’ solo home run at the bottom of the 8th inning, he suffered a bitter defeat on the 21st with only 9 left bases left.
Coach Kim Jong-guk said the next day, “What we always expect from the center hitters is to hit well in a chance and scoring situation.”
Then, he said, “It’s a pity that I missed about 2 or 3 chances,” looking back at the loss of opportunities with 2 outs at the end of the 3rd inning, 1 out at the end of the 5th inning, 1 out and 2 bases at the end of the 7th inning, saying, “It’s a pity.”
KIA cruised with 7 wins and 2 losses in 9 games in July before the All-Star break. The first half finished in 6th place, one game behind the 5th place Lotte Giants, raising expectations for the fight for the top 5 in the second half.
The reason why KIA was able to achieve good results at the end of the first half was the batter’s ‘clutch instinct’. In the last 9 games of the first half, the KIA batting average was 0.330 (32 hits in 87 at-bats), 1 home run, 38 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.803. The team had only one home run, but it showed off a firepower that was formidable compared to any other team.
In order for KIA to build a smooth multiplier in the second half, the power of hitters is needed after all. As the depth of newly joined foreign pitchers such as Panoni-Sanchez and native starting pitchers leading to Yang Hyeon-jong-Lee Eui-ri is solid, if only the offensive power is supported, you can aim for a leap.
KIA batters are also trying to raise the sense of hitting that cooled during the All-Star break. After the match against Doosan on the 21st, not a few players made special hits.
Coach Kim Jong-guk explained, “Players who didn’t feel good at hitting or players who didn’t play the game remained after the game. We increased the amount of training with the hitting coaches.”