Kia suffers only sweep of the season…LG aims for revenge

They face the Kia Tigers for the first time in 26 days. It’s the first meeting since the first sweep of the season.

LG kicks off a three-game weekend series against the Kia Tigers on Saturday at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field. It will be the first attempt to win against Kia this season.

This year, LG has been in contention for the top spot right out of the gate. The team hasn’t had a long losing streak and has been piling up wins.

Kia is the team that handed them their only sweep of the season. The three-game losing streak is also LG’s longest this year.

Kia swept the three-game series against LG at Jamsil Stadium on March 28-30. In each game, KIA always had the last laugh. It had been 1838 days since Kia had swept LG since April 17-19, 2018.

More than a month later, the two teams meet again.

LG is still battling for the lead.

It took sole possession of the top spot with a 2-1 victory over SSG Landers, who are also battling for the top spot, in a three-game midweek series. If they keep up the pace in the three-game series against KIA, they’ll get a boost in their fight for first place.

Adam Plutko will start the first game.

Plutko has been outstanding this year, going 6-0 with a 2.15 ERA in nine games. Last year, he was dominant against KIA, going 3-0 with a 0.95 ERA in five appearances.

This is not a game to back down from for KIA, who are battling in the middle of the pack.

KIA is in sixth place with a 19-20 record through 25 games. They were swept in a three-game series in midweek by the ninth-ranked Hanwha Eagles.

Looking to rebound, KIA will start Adonis Medina on the mound.

In his first season in the KBO, Medina is 2-5 with a 5.79 ERA in seven games. 먹튀검증

He has yet to inspire confidence with his erratic delivery. In 37 1/3 innings pitched, he’s struck out 26 batters while walking 16 and hitting seven balls in the body.

Add to that a red-hot LG batting lineup. LG is batting .292 as a team this year. LG catcher Park Dong-won, who leads the team in home runs, has been heating up at the plate, batting .382 (13-for-40) in his last 10 games, including a multi-hit performance against SSG on May 25.

For Kia, they should have fond memories of last month. Catching first-place LG and closing the gap could make the race for the top spot easier.