Fifth place in the KBO regular season is like a survival cutoff. It’s hard to dream big if you’re in fifth place in fall baseball, where you have to play in the wild card game with one loss. Still, the difference between fifth and sixth place is almost as big as the difference between heaven and earth in terms of season results for KBO teams. To use an Olympic analogy, it’s the line that separates the third place bronze medal from the fourth place gold medal.
The difficulty of entering fall baseball is different every season. The cutoff, represented by the 5th place win rate, changes every season.
Last year, the fifth-place KIA had a winning percentage of 0.490 (70 wins, 1 tie, 73 losses), which is a win-loss margin of ‘-3’. In 2021, the 5th place KIA was 0.511 (70 wins, 7 draws, and 67 losses) with a win-loss margin of “+3.” In 2020, the 5th place KIA jumped to a whopping 0.559 (80 wins, 1 draw, and 63 losses). The 6th place KIA was very unlucky that year. With a winning percentage of 0.507 (73 wins, 71 losses), they struggled to even get close to fifth place.
This season, fifth-place Doosan has stumbled through June. As of the 21st, Doosan is 30-1-32 (.484) with a win-loss margin of ‘-2’.
A slump in the fifth-place team’s win percentage is a “hope sign” for the bottom teams. It’s like a target moving closer. With the ultimate goal of making the postseason, the math becomes a bit more realistic.
This year, we’re halfway through the regular season, and the gap between fifth and last place is very narrow. Last year, there were a whopping 11 games between 5th place KT (33 wins) and 10th place Hanwha (22 wins, 1 draw, 44 losses) as of June 21, but this year, there are only 5.5 games between 5th place Doosan and 10th place Hanwha (24 wins, 4 draws, 37 losses) at the same point. Doosan and the sixth- and seventh-place teams, Kiwoom and KIA, are separated by only one game. Furthermore, fourth-place Lotte and fifth-place Doosan are separated by only two games, so the entire field is tightening around fifth place.
There are many voices pointing out various reasons for this season’s unique trend. While it may be a “sore point” for the entire league, there has been a lot of talk among experts in the field lately that the league has leveled off.
SBS Sports commentator Lee Soon-cheol said, “Many teams are generally weaker. However, the increasing number of weak teams may be an opportunity for some teams,” said SBS Sports commentator Lee Soon-cheol. “The NC is doing so well this season, and it seems to be a result of the pennant race flow this season.”카지노사이트
However, the KBO, with 10 teams in a single league competing for a set number of spots, is 100% a game of ‘relative evaluation’. The immediate problem is competition from other teams. Whether it’s downward parity or upward parity, the tight clustering of teams in the middle of the pack could be the perfect backdrop for a late-season battle.