Weather entered the picture on Wednesday with one game being postponed while a second ended after five innings due a downpour. There will be a double header on Thursday with an interesting wrinkle the major leagues could look at if they ever return to the field:

Not included in the tweet, the first game of the double header will not go into extra-innings if still tied. Remember, the KBO allows for ties in the regular season. As for the other game, Aaron Brooks benefits from the heavy rain en route to his third win: 

With injuries piling up in the KBO, the KT Wiz could be losing a member of its rotation after a rough outing versus Kia: 

Kia’s Sun-bin Kim landed on the injury list prior to this contest with a hamstring injury, and his team awaits MRI results as to the severity of before commenting on how long he may be sidelined. It’s been covered here before, but soft tissue injuries along with pitching injuries keep accumulating in the KBO and major league players should be paying close attention with a truncated spring training leading up to game action if an agreement can be reached. For some good news, Kiwoom’s talented hitter Jung-hoo Lee gives credit to his analytical department providing his progression as a power hitter. Lee addresses this in this interview:

Entering game play on Wednesday, Lee owned a .374/.438/.618 slash line with 13 doubles and five home runs through 31 games. In his three seasons prior, Lee hit 14 home runs combined. But nerds remain bad for the game, right? Check out the top performers from the slate in the rest of the Round Up. 

Starting Pitcher Spotlight

As alluded to earlier, Aaron Brooks benefited from the weather and a struggling Wiz lineup recording a five inning complete game shutout giving up three hits and striking out three including this at-bat: 

Brooks lowered his ERA to 2.76 with a 1.18 WHIP after this outing and boasts a 34:7 K:BB over his first 42.1 innings in the KBO. 

Targeting Hanwha’s struggling offense makes sense as evidenced by Lotte’s Kyung-eun Noh notching his second win allowing five hits, two runs (one earned), and striking out five. This marks his third quality outing in six turns and lowered his ERA to 5.45 on the year. 

While most focused on the NC Dinos starter on this slate, Raul Alcantara registered his KBO leading sixth win tossing seven innings yielding six hits, one earned run, and striking out four snapping the Dinos six game winning streak. Alcantara proves to be hittable at times illustrated by his 4.07 ERA and 1.38 WHIP, however pitching for Doosan’s offense while racking up innings keeps him atop the wins column. 

Entering Wednesday’s match-up with Kiwoom with an ERA over 10, Jung-hyun Baek garnered his first win this season firing six shutout innings giving up two hits and two walks with four strikeouts. So, baseball.

Both Drew Rucinski and Eric Jokisch suffered their first losses of the season with each throwing quality outings in them. Rucinski pitched six innings allowing three hits, two earned runs and one walk with three strikeouts. Jokisch also worked six innings yielding five hits, three runs (one earned) and two walks with three strikeouts. Rucinski owns a 2.23 ERA and 1.13 WHIP while Jokisch carries a 1.49 ERA with a 0.97 WHIP. Pretty, pretty good despite the losses. 

Hitter Highlights

Lotte Giants

Extending their win streak to five, Lotte scored 12 runs against Hanwha with home runs and flare: 

Jun-woo Jeon finished 3-for-5 with two runs, a double, his fifth home run, and drove in two behind the wave of Giants runs on Wednesday. Ah-seop Son also recorded three hits in five at-bats with two runs, his second home run while driving in five. Here’s the other Lotte performances of note: 

  • Dixon Machado (SS) - Went 3-for-5 with three runs, a double, triple, RBI, and stole his third base. 

  • Lo-han Kang (OF) - Hitting ninth, Kang scored two runs going 1-for-3 with two walks and stole his second base. Kang’s stolen a base in consecutive contests. 

Kia Tigers

  • Ho-ryung Kim (OF) - He’s hit safely in seven straight starts and went 1-for-2 with two runs along with a walk. Kim has also scored at least a run in his last seven starts with 10 total. 

  • Preston Tucker (OF) - Reached three times in four plate appearances with a hit, two walks and scored two runs. 

  • Ji-wan Na (OF) - Drove in two runs during a 1-for-2 game with two runs and two walks. 

  • Min-sang Yoo (1B) - Hit his second home run driving in three in three at-bats. 

Doosan Bears

  • Jose Miguel Fernandez (DH) - Returned to the multi-hit column going 2-for-5 with a run and two RBI. He’s still hitting .411 on the year and moved into a tie for second in the KBO with 30 RBI. 

  • Jae-il Oh (1B) - A double dong day for Oh hitting his fourth and fifth home runs this season with two RBI and a walk in five plate appearances. 

  • Jae-ho Kim (SS) - Flying below the radar, Kim launched his first home run with two runs and two RBI while recording his fourth multi-hit game in his last six. 

Samsung Lions

  • Sang-su Kim (2B) - Moved his hit streak to five games during a 1-for-3 game with a run and a walk. 

  • Seung-gyu Park (OF) - Hit his first home run in four at-bats driving in one. 

  • Tyler Saladino (OF) - Went 1-for-3 with a run, walk and stole his second base. 

NC Dinos

  • Myung-gi Lee (OF) - Tallied two hits in three at-bats. Lee’s recorded multiple hits in three straight and on a seven game hit streak. 

  • Eui-ji Yang (C) - Homered for the second straight game against his former team. Yang went 1-for-3 with his sixth home run and moved into a tie for fourth in the KBO in RBI (29) as a result of his solo shot. 

  • Aaron Altherr (OF) - Tripled in three at-bats extending his hit streak to seven. During the streak, Altherr’s notched nine hits but six resulted in extra-bases (two doubles, one triple, three home runs). 

Kiwoom Heroes

  • Keon-chang Seo (DH) - Finished 1-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. 

  • Ha-seong Kim (SS) - Moved his hit streak to 10 during a 1-for-4 day. 

  • Byung-woo Jeon (3B) - Went 1-for-3 and hit safely in eight of his last nine. 

Hanwha Eagles

  • Jared Hoying (OF) - Racked up two hits in four at-bats with a run scored. He’s tallied a hit in five of his last seven with three home runs and six RBI in them. 

With another day in the books, here’s the updated standings courtesy of the KBO twitter handle: 

Interesting things to watch on Thursday include will Hanwha snap their 16 game losing skid? Mike Wright of the NC Dinos will take the mound with his team looking for the series win over Doosan who counters with Young Ha Lee. Also, the slate will lock earlier in the morning due to the double header between the SK Wyverns and LG Twins. Be sure to stay with Fantasy Alarm to remain ahead of the competition across all fantasy formats. 

Statistical Credits: 

myKBOstats.com
Eng.koreabaseball.com