SSG, who have lost five straight, have one win, one draw and eight losses in their last 10 games.

It started with a whimper, and now they’re in sixth place. The SSG Landers, once the favorite to win the title, are now worried about fall baseball.

SSG suffered a sweep against LG in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul last weekend, dropping all three games. SSG, which once formed a “second tier” with LG, has now lost five straight games and dropped to sixth place. With one win, one draw, and eight losses in their last 10 games, SSG’s ranking is slipping away at an alarming rate.

It’s a total disaster at the end of the season, when it matters most. Especially with the bat. During the losing streak, SSG’s team batting average is 0.219. While SSG is seventh in the league in team batting average (.259), they are first in team home runs (107). This is a team that always wins games with home runs. However, during their losing streak, they have only hit one home run and are averaging just 2.8 runs per game. On the other hand, the team’s ERA is 6.70, which means they can’t win.

SSG tried to turn things around earlier this month by changing the positions of the first-team pitching and hitting coaches, but it hasn’t worked. The team demoted hitting coach Lee Jin-young to the second team, while quality control coach Jung Kyung-bae and assistant hitting coach Park Jung-kwon were promoted to first team hitting coach and first team assistant hitting coach, respectively. However, the batting lineup feels like they’ve been eating sweet potatoes.

During the recent sweet potato batting session, Coach Kim Won-hyung himself was seen holding a bat and giving batting instructions. Although he is a pitcher, he also showed a batting demonstration and actively coached the team.

Meanwhile, SSG’s winning percentage in September is 0.251 (2 wins, 11 losses, 1 tie). Falling from second to sixth place in one month, the defending champions have completely lost the majesty of last year’s ‘wire-to-wire’ championship. The age of their roster and the fact that they started the season with no reinforcements after winning the title is starting to show. 안전놀이터

SSG’s game this week is a crucial one that could make or break their season. The good news is that they have five games against lower-ranked teams, including Hanwha, Samsung, and Lotte, except for the LG game on the 21st. It will be interesting to see if SSG can climb back up the leaderboard with a ‘whimper’ against the lower teams this week.