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KBO third place race - KIA sweep KT in Gwangju, the second place door shuts and third opens by .003
Through games of Sunday, September 6. KIA took all three from KT in Gwangju. KT's pursuit of first is now 1.5 games back, and KIA have closed to within .003 of third placed LG. In a tie, though, KIA must sweep the five remaining head to head games to finish ahead. Fifth placed Doosan snapped a five game skid and still need 20 wins.
Clinch Desk · Tue, Sep 8
KIA took all three of the KT series in Gwangju from September 4 to 6, winning 4-3, 6-3 and 8-3. KT were held to three runs in each of the three games. Through September 6, first placed Samsung are 72-46-3 at .610 and second placed KT are 69-46-3 at .600, 1.5 games apart. As recently as September 3, KT had won two straight against Hanwha and were half a game off first. Three days cost them three games and tripled that distance.
Samsung went 2-1 at Jamsil against LG over the same days, losing 4-3 on September 4 and winning 4-3 on the 5th and 10-4 on the 6th. First place now carries a clinch number of 11: eleven wins from their last 23 and a postseason place is settled regardless of the other nine clubs. KT need 14 from 26. The tie conditions still favour Samsung, who lead the season series 9-3 with four meetings left, so KT sweeping all four finishes 7-9. A first place playoff would be in Daegu.
The place the sweep shook hardest is third. LG are 68-53-1 at .562 and KIA 66-52-2 at .559, a gap of .003 and half a game. LG beat Samsung on September 4 and then lost twice; KIA have won three straight. LG's clinch number is 16 wins from 22 games, KIA's is 17 from 24.
That .003 in the standings is not the same thing as a realistic reversal. The KBO does not hold a playoff for a tie at second, third or fourth; it separates the clubs by head to head wins. LG lead KIA 7-4 with five meetings left. KIA winning all five finish 9-7 and go ahead. Winning four makes it 8-8 and moves to the next criterion. Half a game in the standings, and a clean sweep of the series in the tie scenario.
Fifth placed Doosan beat SSG 16-9 in Incheon on September 6 to end a five game losing streak, reaching 62-57-4 at .521. The place is more precarious than the standings suggest. Their clinch number is 20 wins from 21 games. One more defeat and they are leaning on other clubs' results, which is where they already were. Sixth placed NC lost 4-2 at Kiwoom in Gocheok the same day, ending a seven game winning streak. At 55-59-2 and .482, they are back to 4.5 games behind.
The decider is still the head to head series. Five meetings are left and Doosan lead it 8-3. A tie for fifth goes to a one game playoff with the home ground to the season series winner, and NC sweeping all five finishes 8-8, which moves to the next criterion. Doosan taking one makes it 9-7 and locks the home ground. NC hold 28 games to Doosan's 21, seven more, and even winning all 28 cannot clinch a top five place on their own. The results above them have to cooperate.
Below seventh, Hanwha moved. They swept Lotte in Sajik 14-4, 11-6 and 8-2 from September 4 to 6 and climbed to seventh. Hanwha are 52-65-3 at .444, SSG 52-67-5 at .437 and Lotte 51-66-2 at .436, three clubs inside .008. The top five is a long way off, but the difference between seventh and ninth is next year's draft order. Tenth placed Kiwoom were eliminated on September 5.
After the Monday off day, five games follow on September 8. First placed Samsung meet fourth placed KIA in Daegu, NC host Lotte in Changwon, Hanwha host Doosan in Daejeon, KT host SSG in Suwon, and LG host Kiwoom at Jamsil. The Samsung and KIA series puts the first place race and the third place race on the same field at the same time.
Every figure here is as of the end of play on September 6, tallied directly from the public Naver Sports schedule feed. The difference between a clinch number and a magic number is set out on the methodology page. Club by club magic numbers and remaining fixtures are on the magic number page and the team pages such as, and the tie rules are on the postseason page.