Dogfight for final playoff spot

With the top three teams having put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack, four clubs are engaged in a dogfight for the fourth and final playoff berth in the top South Korean baseball league.

The Samsung Lions, champions in each of the past three seasons, are sitting pretty at the top of the nine-team Korea Baseball Organization at 55-28-2, five games ahead of the Nexen Heroes. The NC Dinos are seven games behind the Lions in third place.

Then there is some separation. The fourth-place Lotte Giants trail the Dinos by eight games and are closer to seventh place than they are to third.

The Doosan Bears are half a game back of the Giants, and the surging LG Twins are 1 1/2 games out of fourth place. The Kia Tigers still have a fighting chance for the playoff, sitting 2 1/2 games behind the Giants.

The Twins’ rise from the league cellar has completely altered the dynamics of the battle for fourth place. They were in last place on June 11 at 19-34-1, but after coming from behind to beat the Lions 7-6 on Tuesday, the Twins are now 40-46-1. They have the best winning percentage in July with a 13-5 record.

In contrast, the Giants have been playing as though they didn’t want to secure that fourth place. After going 13-6 in June to position themselves in the playoff picture, the Giants have gone 6-14 this month, allowing other clubs to close the gap.

It’s deja vu all over again for these Giants, who suffered through a 7-11 record in July last year to fall out of playoff contention and missed the postseason for the first time since 2007.

The Bears and the Tigers have been up and down all season, but are still hanging around in the middle of the pack, thanks in no small part to the Giants’ inability to tighten their grip on the fourth place.

The Bears haven’t been able to put together a winning streak to get them over the .500 mark in winning percentage, and are currently at 39-43. The Tigers are 3-7 in their last 10 contests, bringing their record to 40-48.

The Twins put their newfound resilience on full display with the one-run win over the Lions Tuesday.

They built a 3-0 lead entering the bottom third, when the Lions scored twice. Then in the bottom fourth, Lee Ji-young tied the game at 3-3 with a solo home run.

The Lions moved ahead on Park Han-yi’s RBI singe in the bottom fifth, but the Twins didn’t back down.

The Twins opened the seventh with a double and a walk. Samsung reliever Cha Woo-chan threw a wild pitch to put runners on second and third. Then Choi Kyung-chul drove home the tying run with a sacrifice fly. (Yonhap)