The professional baseball team Kiwoom Heroes has fallen into the longest losing streak in the franchise's history.
Kiwoom lost to the Doosan Bears 4-9 in the '2025 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League' game held at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 30th. With this defeat, Kiwoom recorded its 10th consecutive loss, surpassing its previous record of 9 straight losses set in 2009 and 2023, establishing a new dishonorable record for the longest losing streak in franchise history.
Starting the season with two foreign hitters (Yasiel Puig and Ruben Cardenez), Kiwoom struggled in managing the rotation as the only foreign pitcher available was Kenny Rosenberg. In the early part of the season, Kiwoom maintained good momentum thanks to the performances of Puig and Cardenez, but soon the limitations of having only one foreign pitcher in the rotation began to show, and the overall team performance deteriorated as the pace of Puig and Cardenez slowed.
On the 17th, Kiwoom recorded its 7th consecutive loss until the first game of a doubleheader against NC, and although they broke the losing streak in the second game of the doubleheader, they fell back into a losing streak. On the 28th, they lost to KIA 7-13, suffering a staggering 21 losses in May alone, setting a new record for the most losses in a month in KBO League history. On the 29th, to escape the losing streak, they fought KIA to a 3-3 draw in an extra inning before returning home.
Having fallen into a 9-game losing streak, Kiwoom dedicated all efforts to escape it. Starting pitcher Kim Sun-ki put up an impressive performance with 5 innings, conceding 4 hits, 4 walks, and striking out 3 batters while allowing 2 runs. In the offense, Choi Joo-hwan hit his 3rd home run of the season, while Lee Joo-hyung and Song Sung-moon both achieved multi-hits. The game flowed in Kiwoom's favor with a 4-2 lead until the sixth inning.
However, the Kiwoom bullpen exposed its instability in the latter part of the game. In the top of the 7th inning, Doosan's lead-off hitter Park Gye-beom drew a walk, creating a no-out first base opportunity. Pinch hitter Kim Dae-han was caught in a pop fly to center, but Cave hit a game-tying two-run home run, bringing the score back to even. With consecutive walks to Yang Ji-ji and Kim Jae-hwan, and a hit by pitch to Yang Seok-hwan, the game changed again when Kim Min-seok hit a go-ahead clearing three-run triple with one out and the bases loaded. Soon after, Kang Seung-ho added an RBI single, and Park Gye-beom hit an RBI triple, sealing the victory.
The Kiwoom bullpen, consisting of Lee Jun-woo (1 inning, no earned runs), Kim Sung-min (⅓ inning, 3 earned runs), Yang Ji-yul (0 innings, 4 earned runs), Oh Seok-joo (⅔ inning, no earned runs), Lee Kang-jun (1 inning, no earned runs), and Park Yoon-sung (1 inning, no earned runs), missed a golden opportunity to end their 9-game losing streak. As a result, Kiwoom recorded an unprecedented 10-game losing streak in franchise history.
Kiwoom's rotation, which has only one foreign pitcher, has been identified as the team's biggest weakness. Aside from Rosenberg and Ha Young-min, there have been no trustworthy starting pitchers, leading to repeated patterns of blowout losses since the early innings in every game. The starting average earned run average (5.49) is clearly the lowest in the league.
However, the recent performances of Kiwoom's starting pitchers have not been bad. On the 20th against Samsung, Rosenberg pitched 6 innings, allowing 1 earned run; on the 21st against Samsung, Ha Young-min pitched 7 innings, allowing 3 earned runs; on the 22nd against Samsung, Kim Yeon-joo pitched 5 innings, not allowing any earned runs; on the 25th against KT, Kim Sun-ki pitched 4⅓ innings, allowing 1 earned run; on the 27th against KIA, Ha Young-min pitched 5 innings, allowing 3 earned runs; on the 29th against KIA, Kim Yoon-ha pitched 6 innings, allowing 3 earned runs with 1 earned run; and in today's game, Kim Sun-ki, the starting pitchers have managed to hold opponents to 3 earned runs or fewer in 7 games over the last two weeks.
However, Kiwoom has not achieved a single victory during the games where the starters limited opponents to 3 earned runs or fewer during this period. The bullpen also remains at the bottom of the league this season. Kiwoom's bullpen earned run average is 6.79, which is overwhelmingly worse compared to KIA's 5.49, who ranks 9th. Considering that the league is trending towards a hitters’ environment, this weakness is even more critical.
Currently, aside from closer Joo Seung-woo, there are almost no relief pitchers that can be reliably entrusted with an inning. In today’s game, they could have secured a victory by holding a 2-run lead for 3 innings but lost the game in an instant. In fact, the Kiwoom bullpen has been underperforming throughout the season, but this had been overshadowed by the struggles in the starting rotation. As the starters begin to stabilize, the issues with the bullpen have now surfaced.
On the 30th against Doosan, Rosenberg returns from rest, and on the 31st against Doosan, new foreign pitcher Raul Alcantara will make his KBO League return. Additionally, the return of top draft left-handed rookie Jung Hyun-woo, who had been sidelined due to shoulder injuries, is approaching, raising expectations of seeing a rotation of Rosenberg, Alcantara, Ha Young-min, Kim Yoon-ha, and Jung Hyun-woo soon. If Alcantara performs as expected, Kiwoom's starting rotation has the potential to become competitive.
In contrast, there isn't much reinforcement planned for the bullpen. To improve the current situation, existing players must rebound. As Kiwoom continues to face difficulties with recurring issues, fans are watching with concern, wondering if the team can overcome challenges and rebound for the remainder of the season.
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