With the first week of May in the books in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), the top two clubs in the standings are moving in opposite directions.
The Doosan Bears, the defending champs, are in first place at 19-10-1 (wins-losses-ties), but they're in the midst of a four-game losing streak. They were swept by the Lotte Giants at home over the weekend, starting the three-game set with back-to-back shutout losses and ending it with a 17-11 drubbing.
Breathing down the Bears' neck are the NC Dinos, who tied their franchise record with an eighth consecutive victory Sunday. After beating the LG Twins 11-5, the Dinos are now one game back of the Bears at 18-11.
This is deja vu all over again for the Dinos, which went 20-5-1 in May 2015 to become only the second KBO club ever to win at least 20 games in a month.
The Dinos entered the 2016 season as a trendy pick to win it all, having added free agent third baseman Park Sok-min to the core that they'd retained.
They sputtered through a 12-11 April and fell to as low as ninth place in the 10-team league at one point. Manager Kim Kyung-moon preached patience, saying all he wanted for his club in April was to play .500 ball.
And it's been a completely different story in May, as the Dinos are finally playing like the championship favorites.
They're third in team batting average with .285 and first in team ERA with 3.55. In the month of May alone, though, the Dinos are batting .346, second behind the KT Wiz (.351), and they're leading all clubs with 11 home runs, 55 RBIs and 56 runs scored.
The meat of their order is also living up to its billing. Eric Thames, the reigning MVP, is batting .458 this month with two home runs and eight RBIs. All-Star outfielder Na Sung-bum is on course for another mammoth season, thanks to four home runs, 15 RBIs and a .609 batting average in May.
Park Sok-min, a perennial All-Star who enjoyed a career year in 2015 with the Samsung Lions hitting .321 with 26 home runs and 116 RBIs, is earning his keep so far: He is batting .467 this month with a pair of long balls and seven runs driven in.
The Dinos' pitchers are getting plenty of run support -- not that they've needed it. Their starters have won five out of six games in May, and the staff has posted a league-low 2.83 ERA.
The Dinos will have a golden opportunity to pad their already gaudy numbers across the board this week. They will take on the last-place Hanwha Eagles for a three-game road series starting Tuesday in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul.
The Eagles are just 8-22 and have lost five straight. They lost two out of three against the Dinos in their previous meeting last month.
The Dinos are two wins away from reaching 20 victories for the season, while the Bears and the third-place SK Wyverns (19-13) will try to get there first.
Until last season, the club that reached the 20-win plateau first won the pennant nearly 60 percent of the time. The Wyverns will host the Bears for a three-game set starting Tuesday in Incheon, just west of Seoul. Because there is a tie in the KBO -- after 12 innings in the regular season -- the Dinos still have a chance to become the first team to win 20.
The Bears are reeling from their worst series of the season.
They lost to the Giants 7-0 on Friday and then 5-0 on Saturday, the first time this season they'd lost two straight games without scoring.
Then on Sunday, every Lotte starter got a base hit as the Giants pounded the Bears 17-11, a slugfest in which the clubs traded 39 hits, including five home runs.
The two shutout losses notwithstanding, the Bears are still among the league leaders in major offensive categories. And during the current slide, versatile Kim Jae-hwan has been the lone bright spot in the lineup.
The 27-year-old, who can play first and left field, was the designated hitter Sunday, and went off for a 5-for-6 night with a home run, four RBIs and three runs scored.
Kim has never played more than 52 games in any of his five previous seasons, but he's emerged as the Bears' most dangerous bat in 2016.
He has already set career highs with eight home runs and 23 RBIs in 20 games. Those eight long balls have come in just 64 plate appearances, while Luis Jimenez of the Twins has hit a league-leading nine homers in 116 plate appearances.
Doosan manager Kim Tae-hyung, who brought the slugger off the bench earlier in the season, said Kim Jae-hwan will remain in the heart of the order for the foreseeable future. (Yonhap)
