‘Nuclear’ Kia to be leaderboard destroyer…seeking ninth straight win in 10 years

Summer may be winding down, but Kia’s bats are heating up.

With a ‘nuclear batting lineup’, Kia is making a seismic shift in the second half of the baseball season.

Seokjun Hong is a reporter.

[Reporter]

The ‘Tiger Legion’, KIA’s backbone is fierce.

Pajuk’s eight-game winning streak helped them leapfrog NC to fourth place and put them within a game and a half of third-place SSG.

This was thanks to the strength of the batting lineup.

During the winning streak, the team averaged a whopping 12 hits a game.

At the end of June, the KIA batting lineup was transformed into a “nuclear batting lineup” when Na Sung-bum and Kim Do-young returned from injury together.

In the month of July, they led the league in home runs, slugging percentage, and OPS, and in August, they were the only team in the league with a batting average over .300 and an OPS over 0.8.

The table-setting lineup of Park Chan-ho and Kim Do-young, followed by the cleanup trio of Na Sung-beom, Choi Hyung-woo, and Socrates, struck fear into opposing mounds.

“When (Park) Chan-ho is doing well, I feel like I’m doing well, too, so I’m trying to stay positive and do my best to go out there (in the circle) because I think if 1-2 is doing well, the team will be going in a good direction.”

Ace Yang Hyun-jong also pitched well after returning from a stint in the second team, helping to fuel KIA’s run.

KIA will go for its first nine-game winning streak in a decade against sixth-ranked Dusan, which is in full swing for fall baseball 바카라.