The Kia Tigers’ bid for a ninth straight win has been delayed by a day due to unexpected rain. The Doosan Bears, tired from Monday’s game, got an unexpected break.
The KBO decided to rain out Game 11 of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League between KIA and Doosan on Friday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
The game was highly anticipated by baseball fans as KIA attempted to win its ninth straight game. KIA swept a three-game weekend series against the SSG Landers in Incheon with an 8-6 victory on March 3. It was their eighth straight win in 751 days, since August 13, 2021, and they moved up from fifth to fourth place, overtaking the NC Dinos.
메이저놀이터Kia rode the momentum into the first game of a midweek three-game series against Doosan, looking for its ninth straight win. The team was heavily outclassed by Doosan in the head-to-head series this season with a 3-7 record, but the general consensus was that they were better than Doosan in terms of pitching balance and atmosphere.
Also, unlike the first half of the season where they were unable to fight Doosan at 100% due to injuries to key players such as Na Sung-beom and Kim Do-young, they were able to utilize all of their best lineups on this day.
Going into the game against KIA, the sixth-ranked Doosan was coming off a 3-4 loss to the Sajik Lotte Giants the day before. However, they had a slight edge over KIA in the pitching matchup.
Doosan was scheduled to start veteran sidearm Choi Won-jun. They didn’t seem to be far behind in the mound battle with second-year starter Hwang Dong-ha.
However, the game never got off the ground, as the calm skies brought rain clouds to Jamsil Baseball Stadium from 6 p.m. onward. Just 30 minutes before the start of the game, heavy raindrops began to fall, making the field wet.
The home team, Doosan, set up a tarp in the infield as soon as it started to rain to prevent the ground from deteriorating, but the rain showed no signs of letting up. Even after 6:30 p.m., when the game was scheduled to start, the rain didn’t slow down.
As the day wore on, thicker and thicker raindrops soaked Jamsil Baseball Stadium. The KBO match supervisor dispatched to the field made the most cautious decision possible, considering that spectators had already entered the stadium, but the result was a rain cancellation.
The decision to cancel the game was finally made at 6:50 pm. The ground conditions had deteriorated significantly, and it hadn’t stopped raining for more than 30 minutes after the cancellation, making it impossible to play the game normally. Even if the rain had stopped, it would have taken more than an hour to clear the field.
The Doosan home team bleachers on the first base side and the KIA away team bleachers on the third base side had a large number of spectators, but there was no choice. Fans regretted the rain cancellation as they tried to move their feet out of the stadium.
The players were just as unhappy about the rain as the fans. KIA had already suffered 20 rainouts, the most among the 10 teams, and the 21st rainout of the season made their already tight remaining schedule even tighter.
Doosan is also not happy about the rain. After playing the last two days of a three-game weekend series against the Sajik Lotte Giants due to a rainout, Doosan’s schedule for the second half of the season is getting tighter with the 19th rainout of the season.
Both teams will change their starting pitchers on the sixth.
Doosan will be looking for their 11th win of the season against KIA with domestic ace Kwak Bin. Kwak is 10-6 with a 2.58 ERA in 19 games this season. He earned his first single-season double-digit win total with a six-inning, three-hit shutout with five strikeouts and one walk against the LG Twins on March 31.
KIA also has a foreign pitcher, Thomas Pannoni, starting against Kwak-Bin. Pannoni was not re-signed by KIA after the end of last season, but was re-signed as a replacement foreign player in July and has been playing in the KBO for two consecutive years. He has been solid this season, going 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA in eight games.
With both teams keeping their postseason hopes alive, KIA is looking for more than just a playoff spot with multiple home games in Gwangju, while Doosan is looking to return to fall baseball for the first time in two years with a top-five finish.
It remains to be seen what the rain that soaked Jamsil will bring for both teams later.