KBO postseason to begin Oct. 14
SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean baseball postseason will begin next week for a run that could last as long as four weeks, the league office announced Wednesday.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the postseason will begin with the wild card round next Wednesday between the fourth-place team and the fifth-place team in the regular season.
The higher-seeded team only needs a win or a tie in two attempts to advance to the next round. However, the lower-seeded club must win two straight games to advance to the next phase.
The wild card round was added to the postseason in 2015, and only once has a fifth-place team upset a fourth-place team -- the 2024 KT Wiz over the Doosan Bears.
After the wild card round, the first round will be the best-of-five affair, with the No. 3 team from the regular season earning a bye and awaiting the wild card winner.
KT Wiz players celebrate after clinching the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) pennant with a 9-0 win over the Lotte Giants at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on Oct. 5, 2026. (Yonhap)
The Kia Tigers, the LG Twins and the Bears are still jostling for positions for the final three postseason spots.
The winner of this series will go on to face the No. 2 team from the regular season in the second round, also a best-of-five competition. The Samsung Lions have locked down the second seed.
The Korean Series, set to begin Nov. 2 barring rainouts, will be best of seven. The Wiz, by virtue of clinching the pennant Monday, punched their direct ticket to the championship round and will meet the winner of the second round.
There will be a traveling day scheduled in between every series. In the first two rounds after the wild card, teams will also have an offday after Games 2 and 4, if their series goes the distance.
In the Korean Series, the contestants will have a day off after Games 2 and 5, should the series be extended beyond five games. The Wiz will host the final two games on consecutive days, Nov. 9 and 10, if the series needs the full seven games to determine the champion.
In that case, the Wiz will be home for Games 1, 2, 6 and 7, while the second-round winner will be home for the middle three games.
Ties will be declared after 15 innings, compared with 11 innings during the regular season.
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