It’s the end of May, but for Kia Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho, it seems to have felt especially long.
“When we kept winning in April, time couldn’t go by that fast,” he laughs, “but when we started winning and losing in May, it seemed like May was really long.
After leading the league for nearly two months, KIA is still not in a position to rest easy. After finishing March and April with 21 wins, 10 losses, and a +11 win-loss margin, the team went back-to-back wins and losses in May with a 29-game winning streak and a winning percentage of more than 5 percent (12 W-1 D-10, 0.545). However, the gap between them and the second-place group has been slim. After a couple of back-and-forths, the second spot has fallen to the defending champions, the LG Twins. The third-place Doosan Bears are also trailing KIA by three games.
Kia has had its own twists and turns. After left-hander Lee Yi-ri went down with an injury in mid-April, foreign pitcher Will Crow went down as well. 안전놀이터 추천 The team has been using a substitute starting rotation for more than a month, and at one point, they were ahead of Doosan in the standings without a win. Although the team managed to end the losing streak and add wins in desperate moments, it was a sleepless night for the ‘rookie manager’ who took the helm this year. Looking back on May, Lee said, “I’m lucky to have survived as long as I did.”
The Tigers overcame a difficult May.
June was supposed to be the time to make a run to consolidate their lead.
But Lee had other ideas. “I don’t have the time or the thought to look far ahead,” he said, “I just set goals and execute them day by day. “We have to take the games we want to take, admit when we’re outnumbered, and set new goals every day,” he said, adding, “We have to focus on each game and make cool judgments instead of looking at future advantages or disadvantages.
The tailwinds are blowing. Cam Aldred, a potential replacement for Crowe, arrives on the 31st. He’s been rotating in the minors this year, so he shouldn’t have any trouble breaking into the starting rotation. Lee Yi-ri and Lim Ki-young, who were called up on the 29th, will also be looking to build up their pitch counts. There are still questions to be answered, 카지노사이트 순위 such as how to utilize Hwang Dong-ha, who has been performing well as a substitute starter, and resting the bullpen. What will the Phils look like in June?
