Korea
Korean originalTranslated
KIA lose 4-1 to Lotte, fail to clinch third place
KIA and LG will face each other for third place in their final game on the 12th. The winner will advance directly to the semi-playoffs, while the loser will face fifth-place Doosan in the wild-card series.
The KIA Tigers lost 4-1 to the Lotte Giants in a regular-season home game in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field on the 11th. A win would have secured third place and direct entry to the semi-playoffs without relying on other results, but KIA failed to earn the one victory they needed.
KIA have 78 wins, two draws and 63 losses, while fourth-place LG have 78 wins, one draw and 64 losses, leaving the teams half a game apart. The winner of their final game on the 12th will finish third and advance directly to the semi-playoffs; the loser will face the fifth-place Doosan Bears in the wild-card series.
The decisive scoring came in the top of the sixth with the game tied 0-0. With two outs, KIA starter Oller allowed consecutive hits to Victor Reyes and Na Seung-yeop and walked Go Seung-min, before Han Dong-hee hit Oller's third pitch, a 148 km/h two-seam fastball, over the center-field fence for a grand slam.
Lotte starter Kim Jin-wook allowed only three hits over six scoreless innings, while Oller took the loss after allowing four runs in 5⅔ innings. KIA put runners on first and third with no outs in the bottom of the ninth through consecutive hits by Harold Castro and Na Sung-bum, but managed only one run on an infield grounder.