I gained strength. I got stronger The coaches of the opposing team also feel it. The fear of KIA without Kim Do Young

Jul 07, 2025

I gained strength. I got stronger The coaches of the opposing team also feel it. The fear of KIA without Kim Do Young
Lotte-KIA match held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 4th. KIA won 7-5 in the eighth inning with a reversal. The players are celebrating their victory. Gwangju = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.4/



"KIA Tigers have definitely changed. It's a different team than it was at the beginning of the season."

KIA is currently fiercely competing for the top spot. It rose to second place on the 5th and then fell to fourth place again the next day against the Lotte Giants in Gwangju, but it is still in range. It is four games behind the first-place Hanwha Eagles, but only 0.5 games behind the joint second-place Lotte-LG.

KIA, which won and lost 2 games against Lotte over the weekend, has become the scariest team in the league since June. In terms of performance since June alone, it ranks first in the league with a winning rate of 0.679 with 19 wins, 2 draws and 9 losses. It has better performance than Hanwha and Lotte. The team's ranking, which had fallen to eighth place at the end of May, quickly rose. All this is thanks to the great strides since June.




Most surprising of all is the great performance of the players who were not classified as the main players before the season. According to the recent KIA game, key players such as Choi Hyung-woo, Yang Hyun-jong, and James Nail are playing well, but players who were classified as 1.5th-tier, backup, and second-tier members, such as Oh Sun-woo, Kim Ho-ryeong, Ko Jong-wook, Sung Young-tak, and Kim Seok-hwan, are playing as the main players, creating a major reversal.

I gained strength. I got stronger The coaches of the opposing team also feel it. The fear of KIA without Kim Do Young
Lotte-KIA match held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 5th. Kim Ho-ryeong, the bases loaded with no outs, is welcomed after hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the fifth inning. Gwangju = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.5/
It's not 'sparkling'. KIA, which collapsed helplessly due to a series of injured players including Kim Do-young, Na Sung-bum, Kim Sun-bin, Kwak Do-kyu and Hwang Dong-ha from the beginning of the season, is forced to give second-tier players a chance.

But the players took the opportunity. 'When will injured players return?' I'm not waiting in vain, but the players now are making new Tigers. Now, even if injured players return, they will have to compete with the players who are doing well now. From a long-term perspective, the team's depth has become more solid.




Opposition coaches also feel KIA's changed power. Even without last year's MVP Kim Do-young, it seems that he has regained his strong team's appearance even if other injured players are excluded.

SSG Landers, who had one win and two losses to KIA in an away game in Gwangju last week. Last year, SSG was a strong team with 10 wins and 6 losses against KIA, which was the 'winning team'. However, this season, it has not been much fun with four wins, one draw and five losses.

I gained strength. I got stronger The coaches of the opposing team also feel it. The fear of KIA without Kim Do Young
Lotte-KIA match held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 5th. Oh Sun-woo, with no outs and runners on the first and second bases, is happy after hitting an RBI timely hit in the bottom of the fifth inning. Gwangju = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.5/
Director Lee Soo-yong said, `I gained strength after sticking to it. If it had been last year, the flow of the game that we could have taken was that I felt a little stronger after seeing KIA closely follow and win"Especially pointed at Oh Sun-woo.




Manager Lee, who paid more attention to Oh Sun-woo because he was a first baseman, said, `Now in KIA, Oh Sun-woo is 'height'. He's growing. The defense is good, and the bat is good. Seeing him follow the breaking ball makes me think that he will grow further." This means that he is a talented hitter that fits the opponent's coach's mind.

I gained strength. I got stronger The coaches of the opposing team also feel it. The fear of KIA without Kim Do Young
Lotte-KIA match held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 5th. KIA won 13-0. Director Lee Bum-ho is making a high-five with Kim Do-hyun. Gwangju = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.5/
Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon, who is being chased by KIA, also said in a briefing with reporters ahead of the Gocheok Kiwoom Heroes match on the 6th that KIA was doing so well. There are a lot of injured players now, and the players who came out after that are making efforts out of desperation. So I think the team is getting stronger."

Coach Lee Bum-ho's prospect of a match will eventually be in August. We expect injured players such as Na Sung-bum and Kim Sun-bin to return and fight with stronger power, but above all, we look forward to the players who have grown up in the meantime becoming another key resource and leading the rebound in the second half.

KIA will play the last three consecutive games in the first half against Hanwha in Daejeon from the 8th. A showdown with the first place in four games. It is a three-game series that determines whether to finish the first half of the year in second, third and fourth places.





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.