Following a short break, the Korean baseball season will resume Tuesday with a highly anticipated series between the league’s two best clubs.
The Kia Tigers, leading the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) at 48-33-2 (wins-losses-ties), will visit No. 2-ranked LG Twins for a three-game set at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. The Twins, the defending Korean Series champions, trail the Tigers by 3.5 games at 46-38-2.
With rain in the forecast throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, and again Thursday afternoon, the teams may not be able to play their series in entirety. And that would be a big letdown for two of the KBO’s most popular teams certain to draw huge crowds at the 23,750-seat stadium.
The Tigers hold a 6-3 lead in their season series so far, most recently taking two out of three from June 18 to 20.
Tigers starter James Naile, who leads the KBO with a 2.66 ERA, has a 1.96 ERA in three starts versus the Twins. He is scheduled to start the series opener Tuesday, followed by Cam Alldred and Yang Hyeon-jong.
The Twins will also counter with their top three starters in Casey Kelly, Dietrich Enns and Im Chan-kyu.
No Twins starter picked up a win against the Tigers in the first half. Enns made three starts against them but didn’t have a win-loss record while posting a 4.50 ERA over 16 innings.
In the Twins’ final game of the first half last Thursday, Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said his team could start making a serious push for first place once his injured players are back in the second half.
Shortstop Oh Ji-hwan, who hasn’t played since May 29, is expected to be back at some point during this Tigers series, after recovering from 한국을 wrist and hamstring injuries. Starter Choi Won-tae, out since mid June with an upper back injury, is likely to start Friday.