KBO standings race 2026: KT clinches first, beating Lotte 9-0 as Samsung loses 7-5 to Doosan and is fixed in second, while KIA beats LG again and can clinch third with five more wins

On Monday, October 5, KT beat Lotte 9-0, and Doosan beat Samsung 7-5. Those two results clinched first place in the regular season for KT and fixed Samsung in second. Our last update said that, if no game is drawn, KT clinches first the moment its wins and Samsung's losses add up to 2, and that the earliest it could happen was Monday. It also said KT would clinch that night if it beat Lotte while Samsung lost to Doosan, and that is what happened. KIA won 6-4 at LG, its third straight win over LG since the 3rd. SSG won 9-0 at NC, and Hanwha beat Kiwoom 13-6. One race is left among the five postseason clubs: KIA, LG and Doosan share third to fifth. NC, SSG and Lotte finish sixth to eighth, Hanwha ninth and Kiwoom tenth.

Every figure here uses results through Monday, October 5, when all five scheduled games were played, all of them now final. The figures for Tuesday and Wednesday results come from feeding hypothetical results into the engine that builds this site's tables. A reachable finish is a boundary set by two records, the one a club finishes with if it wins every game it has left (its ceiling) and the one it finishes with if it loses them all (its floor), and the games-left counts assume a full 144-game season. Draws are left out of the winning percentage. None of this is a probability.

KT is 86-49-5 (.637) and Samsung 82-54-3 (.603). Even if KT loses all 4 of its games left, it finishes 86-53-5 (.619), above the 87-54-3 (.617) Samsung would reach by winning all 5 of its own. Samsung cannot even draw level, so there is no one-game tiebreaker for first either. Before Monday, KT's floor was 85-54-5 (.612) and Samsung's ceiling 88-53-3 (.624). KT's win raised the floor and Samsung's loss lowered the ceiling, and KT's floor rose above Samsung's ceiling. Of the 243 results of Monday's five games that our last update ran, KT clinched first that night only in the 27 where both happened; either one alone would not have done it. Samsung, for its part, finishes 82-59-3 (.582) even if it loses all 5, above KIA's ceiling of 81-61-2 (.570), LG's of 80-63-1 (.559) and Doosan's of 75-64-5 (.540), so it is second.

Each place leads somewhere different. Under the format on the postseason page, first-place KT goes straight to the Korean Series (best of seven) to wait for the Playoff winner, and second-place Samsung waits in the Playoff (best of five) for the Semi-Playoff winner. Third waits in the Semi-Playoff (best of five) for the Wild Card winner. Fourth and fifth start in the Wild Card round: up to 2 games, all at the fourth seed's park, where fourth starts with a one-win head start and advances by winning once, while fifth must win twice. So KIA's, LG's and Doosan's games left decide third, which skips the Wild Card round, and fourth, which hosts it.

KT's 4 games left and Samsung's 5 can no longer change either club's place: whatever happens, KT is first and Samsung second. Their three remaining meetings, on Wednesday, October 7, at KT's park and on Sunday, October 11, and Monday, October 12, at Samsung's, no longer decide first place. KT's remaining opponents are only Kiwoom and Samsung, so its games cannot change any club's reachable finish. Samsung's game at KIA on Tuesday, October 6, is different: KIA's result in it counts in the race for third to fifth.

Third to fifth is between KIA (75-61-2, 6 games left), LG (75-63-1, 5 left) and Doosan (72-64-5, 3 left), and each of the three can still finish third, fourth or fifth. In the standings they run KIA (.551), LG (.543), Doosan (.529). KIA's ceiling is 81-61-2 (.570) and its floor 75-67-2 (.528); LG's ceiling is 80-63-1 (.559) and its floor 75-68-1 (.524); Doosan's ceiling is 75-64-5 (.540) and its floor 72-67-5 (.518). If no game is drawn, the order is settled two clubs at a time. KIA is sure to finish above Doosan once its wins and Doosan's losses add up to 2, and above LG once its wins and LG's losses add up to 5. LG is sure to finish above Doosan once its wins and Doosan's losses add up to 3, and above KIA once its wins and KIA's losses add up to 7. Doosan needs its wins and LG's losses to add up to 6 to be sure of finishing above LG, and its wins and KIA's losses to add up to 8 to be sure of finishing above KIA. KIA's win at LG and Doosan's win at Samsung on Monday moved the counts. KIA's fell from 3 to 2 for finishing above Doosan, and from 7 to 5 for finishing above LG, because the KIA win and the LG loss both count. Doosan's fell from 8 to 6 against LG, because Doosan's win and LG's loss both count, and from 9 to 8 against KIA, by Doosan's win alone. LG's two counts, 3 above Doosan and 7 above KIA, did not move.

The clinch wins by rank on the team pages and the magic number page count the games left as scheduled: a win over a rival is that rival's loss, and a game between two other clubs has only one winner, or is drawn. Counted that way, KIA is sure of third with 5 wins in its last 6 whatever else happens, and of a top-four finish with 2. Before Monday those figures were 6 and 3. LG is sure of a top-four finish with 3 wins, but cannot make sure of third on its own even by winning all 5. Winning out takes LG to 80-63-1 (.559), and KIA, though it would then lose to LG on Monday, October 12, would finish 80-62-2 (.563), above LG, by winning its other 5. Before Monday LG's figure for third was 6, winning all 6 of its games left; the loss to KIA left it short even if it wins out. Doosan needs help even if it wins all 3 games it has left. Winning out takes it to 75-64-5 (.540), and since it has no games left against KIA and only one against LG, on the 7th, that gives it 3 wins plus 1 LG loss, 4, short of 6.

Those counts decide the places. Once KIA or LG is sure to finish above Doosan, that club cannot finish below fourth, so it would host any Wild Card round it plays, and Doosan cannot reach third. If both are, Doosan is fixed in fifth and plays the Wild Card round away. Third goes to the club that is sure to finish above both of the others. KIA is the club that can make sure of third soonest, on Friday, October 9: if no game is drawn, its wins and LG's losses over the 6th, 7th and 9th have to add up to 5. The earliest LG can make sure of third is Saturday, October 10. The earliest Doosan can make sure of a top-four finish is the 10th, and of third the last day of the regular season, Monday, October 12.

A two-club tie anywhere from third to fifth is decided without an extra game, by head-to-head wins, then head-to-head runs, then the previous season's finish. A three-way tie follows the tie rules on the postseason page. In the season series KIA leads LG 8-7 with one game left, on the 12th; LG leads Doosan 10-4-1 with one left, on the 7th; and Doosan leads KIA 9-7 with none left. This site's engine does not work out head-to-head order.

Tuesday, October 6, has five games: KT at Kiwoom, NC at LG, Doosan at Lotte, SSG at Hanwha and Samsung at KIA. We ran all 243 results, draws included. Only one thing can be settled that night. If KIA beats Samsung and Doosan loses at Lotte, KIA is sure to finish above Doosan and so of a top-four finish, with KIA third or fourth and Doosan fourth or fifth, because KIA's floor of 76-66-2 (.535) rises above Doosan's ceiling of 74-65-5 (.532). That is 27 of the 243, and no other result matters. A draw in either game is not enough. If KIA draws and Doosan loses, KIA's floor of 75-66-3 (.5319) stays just under Doosan's ceiling (.5324), and if KIA wins and Doosan draws, Doosan's ceiling stays at 74-64-6 (.536), above KIA's floor. Nothing else can happen on Tuesday: LG cannot make sure of finishing above Doosan, and nobody can make sure of third.

Wednesday, October 7, also has five games: Hanwha at Kiwoom, KIA at Lotte, NC at SSG, Doosan at LG and Samsung at KT. We ran all ten games of Tuesday and Wednesday together, draws included, 59,049 combinations. Only five of them can change a range from third to fifth: NC at LG, Doosan at Lotte and Samsung at KIA on Tuesday, and KIA at Lotte and Doosan at LG on Wednesday. If no game is drawn, KIA is sure to finish above Doosan once its wins and Doosan's losses over the two days add up to 2, and LG once its own add up to 3. For LG that takes beating Doosan on Wednesday, and also beating NC on Tuesday or Doosan losing at Lotte. If Doosan loses both, KIA is above it even if KIA loses both. Counting each draw as half, KIA's wins and Doosan's losses plus half of KIA's and Doosan's draws need to reach 2, and LG's, counted the same way with LG's and Doosan's draws, need to reach 2.5. The Doosan-LG game counts on both sides, so an LG win adds 2 and a draw adds 1. That means LG can make sure of finishing above Doosan with a draw against Doosan if it beats NC and Doosan loses at Lotte, but not if Doosan beats it on Wednesday. KIA is sure to finish above Doosan in 36,450 combinations and LG in 24,057, and both are, fixing Doosan in fifth, in 20,655. If Doosan loses at Lotte and at LG, it is fifth whatever else happens. If no game is drawn and Doosan wins at Lotte, LG has to beat both NC and Doosan and KIA has to win at least one of its two. Nobody can be sure of third by Wednesday, the order between KIA and LG stays open, and Doosan cannot make sure of finishing above either. In 19,197 the three ranges stay as they are.

How to read these numbers. A reachable finish is a boundary set by ceilings and floors: the best finish assumes a club wins every game it has left while its rivals lose theirs, and the worst the reverse. A club that can only draw level is not counted above you when finding your best finish, and is counted above you when finding your worst, so every count in this piece is the point at which a rival can no longer even finish level. The standings show each club's reachable finish, the magic number page the counts for each place, the fixtures the games left, the postseason page the bracket and tie rules, and the methodology page the working behind every figure. The what-if page lets you set any game still to be played. Each club's answer is on its team page: KT, Samsung, KIA, LG, Doosan.