In this file photo from Sept. 10, 2024, KT Wiz players celebrate their 11-8 win over the NC Dinos in a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Sept. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The battle for the final playoff spot in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) could come down to an unprecedented tiebreaker game.
The KT Wiz and the SSG Landers are fighting for one remaining postseason ticket in the top South Korean league. Through Wednesday’s action, the Wiz were clinging to fifth place at 70-70-2 (wins-losses-ties) with two games to go. The Landers were a half game behind them at 69-70-2, but they have three games remaining.
The Doosan Bears (72-68-2) are in fourth place, and they will finish no lower than fifth regardless of the results in their remaining two games.
But there are scenarios in which the Wiz and the Landers will finish with an identical record, in which case they will play a tiebreaker game to determine who will grab that last playoff berth.
If both teams win out, they will finish at 72-70-2. They will also have the same records if the Wiz go 1-1 and the Landers go 2-1, or if the Wiz go 0-2 and the Landers finish 1-2.
The Wiz will close out their season with two home games against the Kiwoom Heroes on Friday and Saturday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul.
The Landers face the NC Dinos in the southeastern city of Changwon on Thursday and then travel to the central city of Daejeon for a game against the Hanwha Eagles on Saturday. Their final game will be at home, Incheon SSG Landers Field, just west of Seoul, against the Heroes on Monday.
At the start of each KBO postseason, the No. 4 seed and the No. 5 seed will collide in the wild card game. The wild card system was introduced in 2015.
Then in 2022, the KBO instituted the one-game playoff in case teams were tied for fifth place. The league has yet to see one materialize, with the Kia Tigers grabbing the fifth spot by two games in 2022 and the Bears doing so by one game the following year.
In the KBO, these one-and-done games are only played to break off ties for first place and fifth place. Ties for second, third and fourth places are broken using season series records and runs scored, among other categories.
SSG Landers players celebrate their 8-2 win over the NC Dinos in a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Sept. 25, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
The Wiz and the Samsung Lions played the very first tiebreak game for the top spot in 2021.
This year, the Wiz and the Landers split their season series, 8-8. But the Wiz scored more runs in those 16 meetings, and they will host the tiebreaker game if it comes to that.
It is also possible that the Bears, the Wiz and the Landers will all end up at 72-70-2. In that case, there will be no tiebreaker game, and standings will be determined using the head-to-head records among these three teams.
The Bears would grab the fourth spot in that scenario because they had 12 wins against the Wiz and seven wins against the Landers during the season, for a total of 19.
The Landers would finish fifth, thanks to a combined 17 wins against the other two teams — nine against the Bears and eight against the Wiz.
If the Bears and the Wiz finish with the same record, then the Bears would finish fourth based on their season series advantage (12-4).
Should the Bears and the Landers end up with the same record, then the Landers would grab the fourth seed, thanks to their season series win (9-7).
(Yonhap)
