KBO Wild Card 2026: LG beat Doosan 4-1 to reach the Semi-Playoff on Austin Dean's first-inning two-run homer; KIA host LG in Game 1 in Gwangju on October 17

LG beat Doosan 4-1 in Game 1 of the Wild Card round at Jamsil on Wednesday, October 14. In the Wild Card round the fourth-place club starts with a one-win head start and goes through by winning or drawing one game, while the fifth-place club has to win both. LG won the first game and is through to the Semi-Playoff. Game 2, which could have been played at the same park on Thursday, October 15, will not be played. Fifth-place Doosan's season ended with this game.

The game record here comes straight from the data behind this site's game pages, as of the end of the game on Wednesday night. The series rules and dates are the schedule the KBO announced on October 7, and regular-season records and head-to-head figures come from the engine that builds the standings and team pages. This piece covers only the finished game and the announced schedule, and says nothing about how the coming games will go.

The runs that decided it came in the bottom of the first. With one out and a man on first, Austin Dean hit a two-run homer to left off Doosan starter 곽빈, and it was scored as the game-winning hit. Doosan got one back in the top of the seventh, driven in by pinch-hitter 양석환. LG added two in the bottom of the eighth to make it 4-1, and 신민재 finished with two hits and an RBI. LG out-hit Doosan 8-4, and Doosan made two errors to LG's none. Doosan stole four bases.

LG starter Carlos Carrasco won it, allowing one run on four hits in six innings with three strikeouts, on 84 pitches. Jon Kennedy pitched an inning, 김진수 a third of an inning and 이우찬 two thirds, and all three were credited with holds; 김강률 pitched a scoreless ninth for the save. LG's five pitchers allowed one run in nine innings.

Doosan starter 곽빈 took the loss, allowing two runs on three hits in six innings with ten strikeouts, on 102 pitches. 곽빈 led the regular season in both ERA and strikeouts. Takada Takuto, 김택연, Zach Logue and 이영하 followed, and 이영하 allowed two runs in the eighth. Doosan's pitchers struck out 12.

The Semi-Playoff (/kbo/postseason/semi-playoff, best of five) is third-place KIA against LG. Games 1 and 2 are KIA home games at Gwangju Kia Champions Field at 14:00 on Saturday, October 17 and Sunday, October 18; Games 3 and 4 are LG home games at Jamsil at 18:30 on Tuesday, October 20 and Wednesday, October 21; and Game 5 is back in Gwangju at 18:30 on Friday, October 23. Games 4 and 5 are played only if needed. The Game 1 starters have not been announced yet. KIA plays five days after its last regular-season game on October 12, and LG three days after the Wild Card game on October 14.

KIA won the regular-season series 9-7 and outscored LG 70-66 over their 16 games. Their last meeting was in Gwangju on October 12, when KIA won 4-2 to clinch third place. KIA finished the regular season at 79-63-2 (.556) and LG at 78-65-1 (.545). The Semi-Playoff winner meets second-place Samsung in the Playoff, which starts in Daegu on Sunday, October 25, with Games 3 and 4 at the winner's park. Samsung went 7-9 against KIA and 8-8 against LG in the regular season. First-place KT waits in the Korean Series, which starts in Suwon on November 2.

Every date is as the KBO announced it. Games rained out move to the next day, so later dates can change. Postseason games run to a maximum of 15 innings and are drawn if still level, and a draw does not count as a win.

How to read these numbers. The Wild Card series score counts the fourth-place club's head start: LG's one win plus its Game 1 win makes two, and Doosan has none. The Semi-Playoff and Playoff go to the first club to three wins, and the Korean Series to the first to four. The postseason page shows the bracket and each series' score and schedule, the game page the line score and player records, and the fixtures the games. The final regular-season standings and the postseason schedule are in our previous piece. Each club's record is on its team page: LG, KIA, Doosan, Samsung.