The KIA Tigers secured third place in the KBO League regular season standings and booked a direct ticket to the semifinals after defeating the LG Twins 4-2 at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field, as reported by domestic sports outlets. Do-young Kim delivered the decisive blow in the bottom of the eighth inning with a two-run home run that broke a 2-2 tie and shifted the final postseason seeding on the closing day of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League schedule.
KIA Tigers Secure Third Place Over LG Twins
KIA finished the 144-game regular season with a 0.556 winning percentage, accumulating 79 wins, 63 losses, and 2 draws. That record edged out the LG Twins, who finished fourth with a 0.545 winning percentage at 78 wins, 65 losses, and 1 draw.
The decisive sequence arrived in the bottom of the eighth inning with nobody out and a runner on first base. Kim connected against relief pitcher John Kennedy, driving a 3-0 slider 130 meters over the center-field wall. The 45th home run of the season for Kim broke the 2-2 deadlock and secured the victory for the Gwangju-based club.
Do-Young Kim Claims the KBO Home Run Title
With his eighth-inning blast, Kim captured the regular-season home run crown. He finished the year with 45 home runs, surpassing Hilliard of KT Wiz, who finished second in the category with 44 home runs. The individual title adds to a productive campaign for the young infielder, who provided the offensive spark that carried the Tigers past their rivals in the standings during the final week of play.
While KIA celebrated a direct entry into the semi-playoffs, LG dropped to fourth place and must now prepare for the postseason wildcard series. The Twins will host the fifth-place Doosan Bears in an intra-city rivalry matchup at Jamsil Baseball Stadium. Because LG finished higher in the regular-season standings, the team holds an advantage in the opening round, needing only a win or a tie across the two-game series to advance.
KT Wiz Claims the Pennant as Individual Crowns Are Decided
At the top of the standings, KT Wiz celebrated the regular-season championship after finishing with a 0.647 winning percentage on a 90-49-5 record, capped by a 4-2 victory over the Samsung Lions that extended their winning streak to ten games. The victory cemented the club’s position at the summit of South Korean professional baseball ahead of the autumn tournaments.
The final day of the regular season also settled several major statistical races across the league. Lotte Giants foreign hitter Victor Reyes collected four hits in his team’s finale against Doosan to finish with 211 hits, surpassing Choi Won-jun of KT, who finished with 208, to claim the league’s batting and hit titles. Young-pyo Ko of KT and Chan-gyu Im of LG shared the lead in victories with 15 wins each. Bin Kwak of the Doosan Bears led all pitchers with a 2.24 ERA and 197 strikeouts, while Ja-wook Koo of Samsung posted the highest on-base percentage at 0.371.
Wildcard Series and Postseason Schedule
The 2026 KBO postseason opens on October 14 at 6:30 p.m. local time (UTC+9) at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, where the fourth-seeded LG Twins face the fifth-seeded Doosan Bears in the wildcard round. Because Doosan finished lower in the standings, the Bears must win two consecutive games to eliminate LG and advance.
The winner of the wildcard series will advance to face the KIA Tigers in the best-of-five semi-playoffs, which are scheduled to begin on October 17. Following that round, the playoff series begins on October 25, leading up to the Korean Series on November 2.
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