The professional baseball team Kiwoon Heroes has broken the all-time record for the most losses in the KBO League.
Kiwoon lost 7-13 to the Kia Tigers in the '2025 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League' at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 28th, marking their ninth consecutive loss.
With a record of 14 wins and 43 losses this season, for a winning percentage of .246, Kiwoon remains at the bottom of the league, trailing 9th place Doosan (22 wins, 3 draws, 29 losses, .431 winning percentage) by 11 games. The gap with 1st place LG (34 wins, 1 draw, 19 losses, .642 winning percentage) is as much as 22 games. Currently, they are on pace for 108 losses.
Having recorded 11 wins and 22 losses with a winning percentage of .333 by April, Kiwoon experienced a severe slump in May. The two foreign batsmen they eagerly signed, Yasiel Puig and Ruben Cardenas, fell into a slump, and the highly anticipated rookie Hyun-woo Jung, who was the first overall pick in the 2025 rookie draft, was sidelined due to a shoulder injury, which gradually weakened the starting rotation.
After recording seven consecutive losses until the first game of the doubleheader against NC on the 17th, Kiwoon broke the losing streak in the second game of the doubleheader but fell into another nine-game losing streak afterwards. Through the 28th, their May record stands at 3 wins and 21 losses, with a winning percentage of .125, marking them as the overwhelming bottom of the league. With this defeat, Kiwoon has earned the shame of setting a new record for the most losses in KBO League history.
Before Kiwoon, the teams that recorded the most losses in a month were OB (now Doosan) in May 1991, SSANGBANGWOOL in May 1992, SSANGBANGWOOL again in May 1999, KT in May 2015, and KT in June 2017, each recording 20 losses in a month. Kiwoon has already surpassed the all-time record for most monthly losses with 21 as there are still three games left in May.
All teams that recorded 20 losses in a month before Kiwoon finished the season at the bottom of the league. OB finished in 8th place in 1991 (51 wins, 2 draws, 73 losses; .413 winning percentage), SSANGBANGWOOL finished in 8th place in 1992 (41 wins, 1 draw, 84 losses; .329 winning percentage), SSANGBANGWOOL Magic League in 1999 finished in 4th place (28 wins, 7 draws, 97 losses; .224 winning percentage, bottom of the two leagues), KT finished in 10th place in 2015 (52 wins, 1 draw, 91 losses; .364 winning percentage), and KT finished in 10th place in 2017 (50 wins, 94 losses; .347 winning percentage).
While Kiwoon is now likely to finish at the bottom of the league, the team is still hoping for a turnaround in June. Kenny Rosenberg, who was temporarily removed from the first-team roster for rest, is set to return to the starting rotation in the game against Doosan on the 31st, and Raúl Alcántara, the foreign pitcher signed to replace Puig, is expected to make his debut on June 1.
Alcántara is a veteran pitcher who has recorded 101 games (627⅔ innings) with 46 wins and 24 losses and an earned run average of 3.21 in the KBO League. He excelled in 2020 while playing for Doosan, winning 20 games and losing 2 in 31 games (198⅔ innings) with an earned run average of 2.54, earning the Golden Glove for pitching, and based on this performance, he moved to Nippon Professional Baseball (Hanshin). If Alcántara can show the form he demonstrated in his better days, the Rosenberg-Alcántara combination could become a powerful weapon for Kiwoon, similar to the Ariel Hurado (Samsung)-Emanuel De Jesus (KT) combination last season.
As Kiwoon endures its worst-ever season, attention is drawn to whether the team can find a breakthrough for the remainder of the season and hope for the next season.
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