The two best teams in the regular season will square off in the South Korean baseball championship series starting this week, with one team going for its second title and the other chasing its ninth.
The KT Wiz and the Samsung Lions will duke it out in the best-of-seven Korean Series, with Game 1 starting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, some 30 kilometers south of Seoul.
After the first two games in Suwon on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Lions will host Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Saturday, and, if necessary, Game 5 on Sunday at Daegu Samsung Lion Park in Daegu, about 230 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The Wiz will host Games 6 and 7 on Nov. 10 and 11 if the series goes that far.
The Wiz had the best record in the regular season in the Korea Baseball Organization at 90-49-5 (wins-losses-ties), while the Lions finished eight games back at 83-58-3.
The Wiz earned a bye to the Korean Series. They have not played since their final regular-season game on Oct. 12. The Lions advanced directly to the penultimate round of the postseason, where they needed all five games to knock off the Kia Tigers.
The Wiz captured the first Korean Series title in franchise history in 2021 under their current manager Lee Kang-chul. They lost to the LG Twins in the 2023 Korean Series.
The Lions have won eight titles, their last one coming in 2014. They were the runners-up to the Tigers in the 2024 Korean Series, with their current bench boss Park Jin-man also in charge then.
This is the first postseason meeting between the Wiz and the Lions.
The Lions won the season series at 9-7-0. They were the only opponent against whom the Wiz had a losing record this year.
Considering the lengthy layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of the Korean Series, the top seed each year faces the "rest vs. rust" question. While the Wiz's pitchers may be rested, their hitters may need a few at-bats to shake off their cobwebs and adjust to the rhythms of a competitive postseason game -- something that intrasquad scrimmages may not be able to replicate.
The Lions played five high-stakes, high-stress games over the past week to get to this point. While manager Park rode some bullpen pitchers hard, their hitters generally looked to be in midseason form by the clinching Game 5 on Sunday.
The Wiz boast a deep starting rotation that posted the KBO's second-best ERA at 3.83. They have four capable starters available in this best-of-seven battle, with Ko Young-pyo, So Hyeong-jun, Logan Allen and Davis Daniel. Allen and Daniel, in particular, excelled as midseason replacements for Caleb Boushley and Matt Sauer.
The Lions used only three starters in the previous series. Ariel Jurado won two games himself but will not be available until Thursday's Game 3 at the earliest after pitching Sunday. Chris Paddack, who also pitched twice against the Tigers, including Game 4 on Friday on three days' rest, will likely take the ball in Wednesday's Game 2 on four days' rest.
That leaves Choi Won-tae as the only option for the opener, and not an ideal one at that after he only lasted 1 2/3 innings and gave up two runs against the Tigers on Thursday.
The Lions made the fewest errors in the regular season with 85, and the Wiz were right behind them with 87. But the Lions were sloppy in the previous series, with nine errors in five games, including three by the usually sure-handed first baseman Lewin Diaz, and two each by third baseman Kim Young-woong and shortstop Lee Jae-hyeon.
The Lions will live with errors if Diaz can continue to provide some thump, as he did with two home runs against the Tigers. Choi Hyoung-woo, the oldest player in this series at 42, also supplied two homers.
The Wiz's offense is led by Sam Hilliard, who overcame a slow start to his first KBO season to lead the league with 139 RBIs and rank second with 44 home runs. Their leadoff man, Choi Won-jun, finished second overall with 208 hits, while Ahn Hyun-min is another power threat alongside Hilliard in the heart of the order.
Kim Hyun-soo, in his first year with the Wiz, brings some championship pedigree as the 2025 Korean Series MVP for the Twins.
The 38-year-old holds several KBO postseason records, including 106 games played, 105 hits, 63 RBIs and 51 walks.
In the Korean Series, No. 1 seeds have won the title about 86 percent of the time. (Yonhap)
