After falling away from fall baseball, there was only one goal: avoiding the lowest place. The will of the players was strong. The Samsung Lions, who continued cruising for a month in August, took a breather.
Samsung recorded 12 wins and 9 losses 스포츠토토 (0.571) in August 21 matches against Daegu Kiwoom Heroes on the 27th, showing the 5th highest monthly win rate among 10 clubs. In the meantime, the team’s ranking rose to 8th place, and the gap with the 7th place Lotte Giants narrowed to 2.5 games.
Samsung, who finished the first half in a stagnant atmosphere, suffered a losing series with 1 win and 2 losses against Daegu KT Wiz on the 21st and 23rd of last month, the first three matches of the second half, but won the winning series with 2 wins and 1 loss against Daegu SSG Landers on the 25th and 27th. , and recorded 2 wins and 1 loss in the match against Gocheok Kiwoom on the 28th and 30th.
The trend continued into August. In particular, Samsung had two consecutive matches against LG this month alone, and they succeeded in achieving a winning series with 2 wins and 1 loss. Coincidentally, LG, which maintained a solo system until July, failed to avoid Samsung’s ‘red pepper powder’, and the gap with KT in second place gradually narrowed. It wasn’t a dramatic reversal, but it was clear that the performance had changed compared to the first half.
If there is one thing that stands out, it is that there was almost no losing streak during the month of August. During this period, Samsung’s most consecutive losses were 2 consecutive losses against Incheon SSG on the 12th and 13th, and there was never a single time that they recorded more than 3 consecutive losses. They are maintaining the smoothest pace since the start of the regular season while maintaining the atmosphere well with veteran players at the center.
The biggest driving force is the power of the ‘August team batting average (0.296) 2nd place’ batting line. Koo Ja-wook and Kim Seong-yoon are maintaining high batting averages of 40% or higher, and Lee Jae-hyun (0.365) and Ryu Ji-hyeok (0.362) are also contributing. Oh Jae-il, who had been quiet here, played a big role in the home game against Kiwoom on the 25th and 27th. He played his role as a veteran by leading the team to victory with a grand slam on the 26th and a three-hit game the next day.
After Taylor Widener joined in place of Albert Suarez, who left due to injury, he did not perform as expected, but David Buchanan and Baek Jung-hyun fought well, and Won Tae-in also did his part. Closer Seung-hwan Oh collected 10 saves in August alone and cracked down on the back door.
In order for Samsung to reap satisfactory results after September, it needs to safely finish its 6-game series this week. Because a formidable opponent awaits. First, on the 29th and 31st, Samsung will play 3 consecutive matches against KT, ‘August 1st in odds’, in Suwon away, and from the 1st of next month, Samsung will play 3 consecutive matches against NC Dinos, ‘August 2nd in odds’ at home.
At least, the part where Samsung has hope is that it did not fall behind KT and NC in the relative performance. The performance against KT is tied with 6 wins and 6 losses in 12 matches, and Samsung has a slight advantage with 6 wins and 4 losses in NC matches. Attention is focusing on whether Samsung will put a brake on the rise of these two teams.