The first half of the KBO League has come to a close.
The 2024 season of the KBO has seen one of the tightest standings battles in history. Only 13 games separate the first-place KIA Tigers from the 10th-place Kiwoom Heroes. This is the smallest first-half gap between first and last place since 2016, when the league became a 10-team league. The previous record was 18 games in 2021.
It’s been a tight race all season long, with no clear favorite and no clear underdog.
KIA (48 wins, 2 draws, 33 losses), who started the 2024 season as the ‘favorite’ to win the title, fought their way to the top of the leaderboard. It’s the first time in seven years that Kia has finished the first half in first place since 2017, when they won the overall title.
Despite the departure of key players such as Will Crow and Lee Yi-ri, the remaining players held together. The pitching staff was steady enough to lead the team in both ERA (4.40) and batting average (0.296).
Kim Do-young, a third-year player, spearheaded the team’s offense, collecting 23 home runs and 26 stolen bases before the first half of the season was even over, en route to a 20-homer, 20-steal season.
The defending champion LG Twins are followed closely by the Doosan Bears and Samsung Lions.
Second-place LG (46 wins, 2 ties, 38 losses) trails leader KIA by 3.5 games, while third-place Doosan (46 wins, 2 ties, 39 losses) and fourth-place Samsung (44 wins, 2 ties, 39 losses) are close behind. Only 1.5 games separate second through fourth place.
LG was troubled by the early struggles of its foreign pitchers Casey Kelly and Dietrick Enns, but the duo’s resurgence has helped the team climb back into the race.
Doosan, which has garnered attention for its “venomous baseball” under second-year manager Lee Seung-yeop, also continued to compete for the top spot. Doosan was also plagued by a series of injuries to foreign pitchers such as Raul Alcantara and Brandon Waddell, but the younger pitchers made their presence felt and made the team smile.
Samsung, who had been overlooked in pre-season evaluations, defied all expectations. 고스톱 온라인 Young players such as left-handed pitcher Lee Seung-hyun, who was moved to the starting rotation, and Kim Young-woong, whose skills have come into full bloom, have made the team more challenging for opponents.
However,
The team’s inability to sustain the good momentum and the trend of winning streaks and losing streaks proved to be a challenge in the second half.
The fifth-ranked SSG Landers (41 wins, 1 draw and 42 losses) and the sixth-ranked NC Dinos (40 wins, 2 draws and 41 losses) were also ‘underrated’ before the season. However, they have managed to hold on to their mid-table positions and are eagerly looking to make a leap to the top.
Seventh-ranked KT Wiz (38 wins, 2 draws, 45 losses), who were among the favorites to win the title along with Kia and LG, have slipped to the bottom of the standings due to the loss of players. At one point, they dropped to 10th place, but they heralded a rebound with seven wins, one draw and two losses in their last 10 games of the first half.
Lotte, which started the 2024 season with Kim Tae-hyung at the helm, finished eighth with 35 points (3 wins, 3 draws, 42 losses). The team struggled through April with the lowest win percentage (0.276), but with the development of younger players, the team rebounded after June with the highest win percentage (0.560).
The ninth-ranked Hanwha Eagles (36 wins, 2 draws, 44 losses), the only club among the 10 to change managers during the season, have improved to 12-1-1 under Kim Kyung-moon.
After an up-and-down start,
Ryu Hyun-jin has returned to his “express ace” mode and the batting lineup has become more destructive, raising expectations.
The underdog Kiwoom Heroes finished the first half of the season in last place (35 wins and 46 losses) after their top two hitters, Ahn Woo-jin and Lee Jung-hoo (San Francisco Giants), left for the military and the United States, respectively. However, the gap between them and fifth-place SSG is only five games.
The team is looking to make a comeback in the second half with foreign pitchers Enmanuel De Jesus, Ariel Hurado, and foreign hitter Ronnie Dawson, who have all been performing well.
The KBO will head into the five-day All-Star break in five days, and will resume the second half of the schedule on Sept. 9.