The Kia Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) rode the power of their hot bats to their ninth straight win in 10 years and three months.
The team won 7-1 against the visiting Doosan Bears in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Saturday.
With the win, KIA hasn’t lost a game in nine games since last month’s win over the Suwon KT WIZ on March 24, and is well on its way to entering the fall baseball season.
KIA’s nine-game winning streak is the longest in 3,730 days since June 8, 2013 against the Mokdong Nexen (now Kiwoom) Heroes and June 20 against the Daejeon Hanwha Eagles.
After failing to score an early run against Doosan ace Kwak Bin, KIA broke the game open with a two-run homer by Na Sung-beom in the third inning.
With two outs in the inning, Na lined a curveball from Kwak-Bin for his 15th home run of the season, a 125-meter shot.
It was his third home run against his former club this season, joining Jose Pirela (Samsung Lions) and Roh Si-hwan (Hanwha Eagles).
According to Trackman, Na’s bat speed was 176.7 kilometers per hour and the distance was 124.9 meters.
In the fourth inning, Park Chan-ho singled with runners on first and second and then Kim Do-young hit his fourth two-run homer of the season with runners on first and third.
Kim’s high fastball from Kwak Bin was clocked at 173.8 kilometers per hour and traveled 130 meters.
The fired-up Kia bats didn’t stop there, as they pulled Kwak-Bin from the mound and put runners on first and second with Socrates Brito hitting a two-run double to extend the lead to 7-0.
KIA starter Thomas Pannoni shut down the Doosan bats with six innings of three-hit ball, striking out seven and walking none to improve to 4-1 on the season.
KIA will now attempt to win 10 straight games for the first time in more than 14 years and one month.
If KIA wins against Doosan in Jamsil on July 7, it will win 10 straight games for the first time in 5,139 days since July 30, 2009, against the Busan Lotte Giants and August 11, 2009, against the Gwangju Lotte.
At that time, Kia won one more game to extend its winning streak to 11 games and went on to win the regular season and the Korean Series that year. 토토