KIA Tigers Clinch Third Place in KBO Regular Season as Kim Do-young Hits 45th Home Run
The KIA Tigers secured third place in the regular season and advanced directly to the semifinal playoffs following a 4–2 victory over the LG Twins on October 12, 2026, at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field.
Kim Do-young broke a 2–2 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning with a two-run home run off relief pitcher John Kennedy. The 130-meter shot to center field marked Kim’s 45th home run of the season, lifting him past kt wiz’s Hilliard, who finished with 44, to claim the KBO home run title.
With the win, KIA finished the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season with a 0.556 winning percentage on a 79–63 record with 2 ties. LG slipped to fourth place at 0.545 with a 78–65 record and 1 tie, setting up a wildcard series against the fifth-place Doosan Bears.
Kt wiz secured the regular-season pennant with a 90–49 record and 5 ties, finishing at 0.647 after defeating the Samsung Lions 4–2 in their final game to claim a ten-game winning streak. The postseason opens with the wildcard matchup between Jamsil rivals Doosan and LG on October 14 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, where Doosan must win two games to advance while LG needs only a tie in either contest.
The semifinal playoffs, a best-of-five series, begin October 17. The playoff series follows on October 25, and the Korean Series opens November 2.
Individual titles concluded on the final day of the season. Lotte Giants foreign hitter Victor Reyes collected four hits in a game against Doosan to finish with 211 hits, surpassing Choi Won-jun of kt wiz, who finished with 208, to win the batting hits title. KT pitcher Ko Young-pyo and LG pitcher Im Chan-gyu tied for the most wins with 15 each. Doosan pitcher Gwak Bin led the league in both earned run average at 2.24 and strikeouts with 197, while Samsung hitter Koo Ja-wook recorded the highest batting average at 0.371.
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