The favorite is back in the race.
They are climbing the stairs from last place with a steep rise,
KT Wiz won a 10-3 victory over the KIA Tigers on the 23rd. It was their fourth straight win. Foreign ace William Cuevas, who was brought back after Bo Schuler was sent down, pitched six innings of four-hit ball with one walk and six strikeouts in his second start. With 79 pitches, he could have thrown one more inning, but with a big lead and only his second start, he settled down.
KT has been on a roller coaster ride this season. KT was one of the favorites to win the title this season, but the team started the season with a lot of injuries and anxiety, and that anxiety showed in their performance. After dropping to 9th place with 7 wins, 1 draw, and 14 losses in the month of April, KT suddenly dropped to 10th place after losing a head-to-head match against Hanwha on May 7. With 8 wins and 17 losses, the team had a winning percentage of 2.6.8, 4.5 games behind the fifth-place NC Dinos (14 wins and 14 losses).먹튀검증
The team was riddled with injuries and struggling to field a full lineup. It was hard to get out of the bottom half of the standings. The gap to fifth place, where they could play fall baseball, was getting smaller and smaller. On May 20, they lost to Doosan and were eight games behind the fifth-place NC.
A game between Samsung and KT at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on May 17. Cuevas is pitching. Suwon=Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com/2023.6.17/
By this time, experts were starting to say that KT would have a hard time competing in the fall.
However, KT was the favorite to win the title before the season. They were confident that they could move up once their main players returned, and indeed, they started to look up as their injured players returned.
With the team back to full strength, KT started to gain momentum with back-to-back wins and back-to-back losses. As the starting lineup settled in, KT’s trademark solid baseball began to emerge. A win over the Lotte Giants on June 7 improved their record to 20-30 with a 4 percent winning percentage, tying them for eighth place with the Kiwoom Heroes (22-33). The gap to the fifth-place Doosan Bears was six games.
After escaping last place in a month, KT started to climb higher. After four straight wins, they lost one, and then won four in a row, including a three-game series against the Lotte Giants this week, followed by a win against the KIA Tigers on June 23.
In June alone, they are 14-5 with a winning percentage of 7.33, good for first place overall.
A game between SSG and KT in the KBO League at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on June 14. KT’s Hwang Jae-gyun batting. Incheon=Song Jung-heon 기자songs@sportschosun.com/2023.06.14/
With 30 wins, 2 draws, and 34 losses, the winning percentage has increased to 4.669%. They only need four more wins to reach a winning percentage of 5 percent. They are ranked seventh. There is no game difference between them and the sixth-place Kiwoom Heroes (32 wins, 2 draws, 36 losses). They are now one game behind fifth-place Doosan.
Beyond fifth place, fourth is also in sight. They are only three games behind Lotte.
A month ago, KT was a bottom team in need of a winning series, but now it’s a top-five contender. Last year, they went from last place to fourth. How far will they go this season? It’s time to move up from a “KT Watch” to a “KT Warning”.