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Long out of playoffs, Kiwoom Heroes still pushed to compete by interim manager

Published: 16 Sep. 2025, 18:34

Kiwoom Heroes interim manager Seol Jong-jin watches his team play the LG Twins in a KBO regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul on Aug. 29, in this file photo provided by the Heroes. [YONHAP]

The Kiwoom Heroes have been out of postseason contention in the KBO for weeks, if not months, but their interim manager Seol Jong-jin still wants his players to compete hard until the final out of the year.

And Seol said Tuesday he likes what he has seen from his last-place squad lately.

"Even though we are long out of the race, I think it's our duty as professional ball players to do our best. And we've been playing .500 ball since August," Seol said in his media availability before facing the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.

The Heroes are 44-87-4 for the season but have gone 16-18-0 since Aug. 1, a better record than three teams over that stretch.

"My message to the team is that we have to take each and every game seriously," Seol added. "And I am really thankful that our players have responded well to that."

Case in point: the Heroes gave the second-place Hanwha Eagles all they could handle over the past two games, winning 13-10 on Sunday before losing 7-6 on Monday. In that latter game, the Heroes rallied from deficits of 2-0 and then 6-2 before giving up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

"We almost had the second game there," Seol said with a smile. "We did everything we could to win that game but things just didn't go our way."

Rookie pitcher Park Jeong-hun made only his second career start Tuesday, and was charged with a career-worst six earned runs on four hits and six walks in 3 2/3 innings. He did set a career-high with 76 pitches.

"I think he was a little too nervous out there and he didn't pitch the way he's capable of pitching," Seol said of Park, who had mostly pitched in low-leverage situations earlier in the year. "He came up to me and asked for another opportunity to start, because he didn't like how this game went. And I liked that mindset. He will have time to review this game and get ready for the next one."

Yonhap