Seoul: With his red-hot Hanwha Eagles on the verge of making franchise history, manager Kim Kyung-moon said Tuesday he is trying not to get caught up in numbers. The Eagles have won nine straight games in the Korea Baseball Organization, pushing their league-best record to 55-33-2 (wins-losses-ties). If the Eagles beat the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul later Tuesday, they will have multiple double-digit winning streaks in the same season for the first time in team history.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Eagles had earlier won 12 straight games from April 26 to May 11. As that run grew longer and longer, Kim refused to even utter the words "winning streak" in his media scrums, saying he didn't want to put any more pressure on his players and he didn't want to jinx a good run.
The 66-year-old skipper stuck to the same tune Tuesday. "I don't really see this as a record of any kind," Kim said. "And if I talk about these things, games don't go the way we want. So we're just going to focus on this first game of our new series, just like we do for every other series."
Kim added the most important win for his team will hopefully come at the end of the season, as the Eagles are trying to capture their first Korean Series title since 1999.
The nine-game streak has included three straight wins coming out of the All-Star break last week, and Kim said he is encouraged by how sharp his players have looked after their layoff. "I am sure all the other managers were worried about how their teams would respond after the break," Kim said. "Some pitchers and hitters struggle after a long break. Fortunately for us, we got past the first stage quite well. But we have to put that behind us and concentrate on this game here."