KT Wiz players celebrate their 7-4 win over the Hanwha Eagles in their KBO regular-season game at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Aug. 1.KT WIZ
The KT Wiz have been the hottest team in Korean baseball in the dog days of summer, thanks to their shutdown pitching and opportunistic hitting.
The Wiz, having bolted to the top of the KBO standings on a six-game winning streak, will try to stay hot this week with games against a couple of teams stuck in neutral.
The Wiz, at 59 wins, 36 losses and 2 ties, lead the Samsung Lions, at 59-38-2, by a game. The LG Twins (55-44-1), who led the KBO at the start of July, have fallen back by six after dropping two straight games over the weekend. They are now closer to fifth place than they are to first place.
The Wiz will open this week on the road in the southwestern city of Gwangju against the Kia Tigers (52-46-2), who have fallen from fourth to fifth after managing four wins in their past 10.
The Wiz will then host the Lotte Giants (43-54-2), who snapped a three-game slide on Sunday but remained stuck in eighth place, eight and a half games out of the final postseason spot.
Since the start of their winning streak last Tuesday, the Wiz have posted a KBO-best 2.00 ERA and have scored the most runs in the league in that span with 54. They have also smacked the most home runs over the past week with 10, led by Sam Hilliard with four.
Playing in his first KBO season, Hilliard had just five home runs in his first 28 games through April and once had a 14-game homerless drought. Since the start of May, the American outfielder has gone deep 24 times, the second-highest total in the KBO in that span.
Sam Hilliard of the KT Wiz hits a solo home run against the NC Dinos during the clubs' KBO regular-season game at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on July 30.KT WIZ
For the season, Hilliard is third in the home run race at 29, with Kim Do-yeong of the Tigers at 33 and Austin Dean of the Twins at 31 ahead of him.
The Lions have a six-game homestand coming up in the southeastern city of Daegu — three against the sixth-place Hanwha Eagles (46-49-3) and three more against the fourth-place Doosan Bears (52-45-4).
The Lions, though, may not end up playing all six games this week, with Daegu and its surrounding areas having been scorched by a record-breaking heat wave lately. Over the weekend, three games in the southeastern region — two in Changwon and one in Busan — were canceled due to excessive heat, though they were all scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Weekday games begin at 6:30 p.m. but the KBO announced Saturday it may push back first-pitch times by up to one hour depending on the temperature.
The Bears, having won three straight, will begin their week at home in Seoul against the seventh-ranked NC Dinos (43-50-2). The Bears are just two games back of their Seoul rivals, the Twins, for third place, after trailing them by nine and a half games a month ago.
The Twins face ninth-place SSG Landers 38-60-2 on the road for three games before bringing home the Tigers for three more to wrap up the week.
With teams having 41 to 47 games left on the season, there is some separation between the top five and the rest. Though the Tigers are treading water, they still hold a relatively comfortable, four-and-a-half-game lead over the Eagles for the final postseason berth.
