The competition for third place was overturned... KIA's own power is confirmed, LG must hope for a miracle

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kyung-yoon Kim = The competition for third place in the regular season between professional baseball's KIA Tigers and LG Twins has tilted toward the Tigers.

KIA defeated the NC Dinos on the 9th, but LG lost to the Lotte Giants despite giving its all-out effort, so the two teams had mixed feelings.

KIA, ranked 3rd, has 77 wins, 62 losses, 2 draws, and a winning rate of 0.554 as of the 9th, and LG, ranked 4th, has 77 wins, 64 losses, 1 draw, and a winning rate of 0.546.

KIA leads LG by one game and has three games left in the regular season.

They will play against SSG Landers on the 10th, against Lotte Giants on the 11th, and against LG on the 12th.

LG has a game left against Lotte on the 10th and a game against KIA on the 12th.

If KIA achieves 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss in the remaining 3 games, it will automatically secure 3rd place.

Even if LG wins all remaining games, KIA is ahead in winning percentage.

KIA can secure third place just by winning a specific game.

Even if they lose against SSG on the 10th and against Lotte on the 11th, if they win against LG, the last game of the regular season on the 12th, they will advance to the semi-playoffs (quasi-PO) in 3rd place.

In many ways, KIA is in an advantageous situation.

The owner of third place could be determined as early as the 10th.

If KIA defeats SSG and LG loses to Lotte, KIA's 3rd place will be confirmed regardless of the results of the remaining games.

On the other hand, after LG wins against Lotte on the 10th, an opportunity will come only if KIA loses at least one game on the 10th or 11th. Afterwards, they must win the KIA game on the 12th to rise to third place.

Until the beginning of this month, the situations of the two teams were completely opposite.

As of the 1st, KIA was behind LG by two games and was behind by 5th place Doosan Bears by 2 games, putting even 4th place in jeopardy.

However, KIA turned the situation around by sweeping the three-game series against LG held from the 3rd to the 5th.

At that time, KIA gained momentum by winning all three games against LG with thrilling comeback wins by 1 to 2 points.

In particular, in all three games, the winning run was scored in the last attack of the 9th inning, creating a dramatic match.

KIA took the lead in the race for third place with this three-game series, and LG was unable to bounce back after suffering a painful losing streak.