The Kia Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization have continued their dominance. They have won five straight games and are on a tear with an 8-for-10 winning percentage in July alone.

Led by manager Lee Bum-ho, the Tigers won 8-4 against the Hanwha Eagles of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League on Tuesday at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon.

The bats were on fire again with 16 hits, including three home runs.

After taking a two-run lead in the top of the first inning on a leadoff double by Na Sung-beom and an error, Kia answered with back-to-back home runs by Choi Won-joon and Na in the top of the third. It was Choi’s sixth home run of the season and Kim’s 24th of the season. It was also Kia’s sixth back-to-back home run of the season.

In the top of the fourth inning,

Socrates Brito hit his 21st home run of the season. Socrates, who set a new career-high for home runs in a single season, continued his hot streak with a 2-for-5 performance, while Na Sung-beom and Kim Tae-gun each had three hits and Kim Do-young and Choi Hyung-woo each had two hits.

Starter James Nail also earned his ninth win of the season, his first quality start in five games since last month’s win over LG Electronics in Gwangju on April 16, with six innings of one-hit ball, one walk, five strikeouts and one earned run, lowering his ERA from 2.96 to 2.88.

Totaled 96 pitches, 66 strikes and 30 balls. 안전놀이터 His arsenal included a fastball (25), two-seam (17), cutter (14), changeup (3), and curve (1), with his primary weapon being his sweeper (36). His fastball topped out at 151 miles per hour on the tracker, and his fastball averaged 148 miles per hour.

The three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning on a throwing error by reliever Kim Seung-hyun were unfortunate, but the overall pitching combination helped Kia win its fifth straight game. With a season record of 56 wins, 35 losses and two ties (.615 winning percentage), first-place KIA extended its lead over second-place LG (50 wins, 42 losses and two ties, .543 winning percentage) to 6.5 games. Since July, the team has been on a tear, going 11-2-2 in 13 games for a whopping 8-for-8 (.846) winning percentage.

After the game,

Kia manager Lee Bum-ho said, “Nail did a great job of pitching six innings with minimal runs. Although we gave up a home run, it was good to see that he was able to manage the situation with runners in scoring position and didn’t give up any hits. We hope that he will continue to improve in his next outings after today’s quality start.” ”The pitchers behind him also did a good job and we were able to save the game.”

Kwak Do-kyu (1 inning, 1 hit, 2 strikeouts, no runs), Kim Seung-hyun (1⅔ innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 3 runs, no earned runs), and Lee Hyung-beom (⅓ inning, 1 strikeout, no runs) pitched three innings on the mound.

The batting lineup was also praised. “It’s encouraging to see that the bats were evenly matched,” said Lee. “The team is on a winning streak and I think it’s thanks to the players who are playing hard and not losing their focus in the hot weather. I’m grateful to all of them, and we will prepare well for tomorrow’s game so that we can win.”

Kia will start right-hander Hwang Dong-ha against Hanwha on the 21st, looking for a sweep. Right-hander Ryan Weiss will start for Hanwha, which is desperate to snap a six-game losing streak.