The Hanwha Eagles are the hottest team in South Korean baseball at the moment, as their nine-game winning streak has pushed them to first place in the 10-team Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) standings with a 24-13-0 (wins-losses-ties) record.
Their winning streak is all everyone in the KBO wants to talk about -- well, almost everyone.
With the Eagles trying to stretch their streak to 10 games against last-place Kiwoom Heroes on Friday in Seoul, their manager Kim Kyung-moon said the winning streak was the last thing he wanted to discuss.
"It's obviously nice to go on a winning streak but I think it puts so much pressure on the players," Kim said in his pregame session at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. "I'd like to ask the media not to talk so much about our streak. If the manager talks about that in the media, then the players who see that will get stressed out."
The Eagles had earlier won eight straight games. And after dropping two games in a row, they began the current streak.
They have not won 10 straight games since 1999.
The Eagles have a dominant starting rotation, featuring Cody Ponce, the KBO's Player of the Month for the March-April period who leads the league with 66 strikeouts, and former major league ERA king Ryu Hyun-jin, the definition of a crafty lefty.
But Kim insisted it hasn't just been the starters behind the team's winning ways.
"Our bullpen has been excellent," he said. "And our position players have run the bases well and have made great plays on defense. And we've always had someone step up in key moments and deliver. Everything has been going well."
