As the LG Twins seek their second consecutive Korean Baseball Organization championship after a 29-year absence, a major obstacle stands in their way: the Kia Tigers. Can LG put the brakes on Kia’s dominant run, which has seen them take a commanding 6.5-game lead?

“Honestly, I think it’s difficult, but in baseball, you never know when you’re going to get lucky,” Austin Dean, the LG Twins’ patriarchal foreign-born hitter, told reporters at Jamsil Stadium recently when asked if he thought the Twins could close the gap on Kia for the rest of the season.

Austin’s reasoning behind his “difficult” judgment is clear. LG is in second place, a whopping 6.5 games behind leader Kia, with exactly 50 games left in the season. Leaders typically have a month to close the three-game gap unless they can pull off a series sweep. But with a 6.5-game gap, they’ll have to wait until Game 50 for LG to surge and KIA to slide.

On June 11, LG was at the top of the KBO leaderboard.

At the time, they were within 0.5 to 1.5 games of KIA at the top of the standings. However, a four-game losing streak by LG shifted the lead back to KIA, who has held onto the top spot for over a month now. In July, while second-place LG went 5-6 and third-place Samsung slumped to 5-7, Kia went 11-2 to establish its current dominance. LG is currently riding a four-game winning streak, while Kia is on a five-game winning streak. It’s a situation where there is a flying man on top of a running man.

Austin said, “If we can continue our winning streak and Kia falters even once, I think that’s when we’ll have a chance,” but added, 안전놀이터 “I don’t know if that point will come because Kia is playing so well right now. Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be easy unless we get lucky”.

The easiest and quickest way to narrow the gap is to win head-to-head. But that’s not easy either. LG has already met KIA 12 times this season, with only four more to go. The final matchup is scheduled for August 16-18 after a three-game series in Jamsil. However, LG has struggled against KIA this year with a 3-9 record.

There is no guarantee that they will win all four remaining games, and even if they win all four at their current pace, there is a 2.5-game gap. As Austin said, Kia will need to falter at least once before they can hope for a second consecutive title.