During September, Korea Baseball Organization teams will no longer play two three-game series a week. Instead, the league’s 10 clubs will compete in games originally canceled due to weather earlier this season.
These makeup games will be the deciding factor in who will earn the right to be in the running for this year’s Korean Series, the championship round of the KBO. Last season’s champions, the Kia Tigers, are four games behind the KT Wiz for the fifth and final postseason spot.
It’s time to check in on more of the latest news from the top professional baseball league in South Korea, the KBO.
Ponce Surpasses Miranda – On Wednesday, Hanwha Eagles starting pitcher Cody Ponce broke Ariel Miranda’s single-season record for strikeouts with his 226th of the year. Miranda previously set the record of 225 punchouts in 2021 with the Doosan Bears.
Ponce struck out Cheon Jae-hwan of the NC Dinos in the top of the fifth inning in the 6-5 victory to accomplish the feat. He completed six innings in Wednesday’s game, allowing three earned runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts. The Eagles won on a walk-off single by Hwang Young-mook in the bottom of the 10th inning.
Before his outing, Ponce led KBO pitchers with 16 wins, a 1.66 ERA, and 220 strikeouts. The last hurler to win the pitching Triple Crown in the KBO was Erick Fedde in 2023 with the NC Dinos.
Scouts Eyeing KBO Talent – According to a report from Korea JoongAng Daily, dozens of Major League Baseball scouts are in South Korea to get a glimpse of the talent in the KBO.
In a matchup between the Eagles and Kiwoom Heroes on August 28, scouts from 11 MLB teams were in attendance, including the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers, according to the report from the South Korean news website. They were there, perhaps to watch Heroes third baseman Song Sung-min, who recently expressed a desire to take his talents to the United States following the season.