KT Wiz to face Kia Tigers in Wildcard as KBO playoffs begin Thursday

Baseball

Published: 12 Oct. 2022, 15:38 Updated: 12 Oct. 2022, 17:05

KT Wiz to face Kia Tigers in Wildcard as KBO playoffs begin Thursday

KT Wiz players walk off the field after losing to the LG Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The LG Twins beat the KT Wiz in the postponed final game of the 2022 KBO regular season on Tuesday, knocking the Wiz down to fourth place and allowing the Kiwoom Heroes to take a bye directly to the first round of the playoffs.

With the loss, the Wiz move down to fourth place in the final standings and must face the Kia Tigers in the Wildcard series starting Thursday. The series was originally scheduled to start Wednesday but was delayed a day to allow the Wiz to rest.

LG came from behind with two runs scored at the bottom of the ninth inning, locking in a 5-4 victory to knock the reigning champion Wiz down to fourth place.

The Wiz started things off strong on the road at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, scoring four runs at the top of the first to take an early lead.

The Twins added three of their own at the bottom of the inning and one more at the bottom of the third to tie the score at 4-4. KT added one more at the top of the fifth and held on to the narrow lead until the ninth, when LG slipped ahead with two last-gasp runs of their own.

KT tried to pull out their Park Byung-ho trump card — hampered by an ankle injury, Park is only able to make one appearance as a pinch hitter each game — at the top of the ninth inning, but the newly-minted KBO home run king was unable to get anything across to give the Wiz more of a lead and save them from the bottom-of-the-inning loss.

The Wiz had to play two postponed games after the regular season proper ended on Saturday and needed to win both to stay at third. The Suwon club beat the NC Dinos 5-2 on Monday, but fell victim to the Twins on Tuesday.

In the KBO, the top five teams advance to the postseason. The fifth- and fourth-place clubs face off in the Wildcard series, with the fourth-place team having an automatic one-game advantage.

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The winner of that series goes on to face the third-place club in the first round of the playoffs, with the winner of that going on to face the second-place club in the second round of the playoffs.

The winner of the second round of the playoffs gets to face the final boss waiting at the end of the journey: The KBO regular season winners in the Korean Series.

The SSG Landers are this year’s regular season winners, taking a dominant wire-to-wire victory and advancing straight to the Korean Series set to begin on Nov. 1.

But while the Landers wait in the wings, the other clubs will be busy.

The Tigers and Wiz will kick off the Wildcard series on Thursday at Suwon KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi. Entering with a one-game lead, the Wiz only need a tie in the first game to knock the Tigers out and advance to the playoffs proper.

In the seven seasons since the Wildcard was introduced, no fifth-place club has ever overcome the Wildcard handicap to advance to the first round of the playoffs. On two occasions — the Tigers in 2016 and the Heroes in 2021 — the fifth-place club has managed to force the series to two games.

Due to the unique nature of this year’s season end, however, the Tigers enter the Wildcard game after four days of rest, having played their last game against the Wiz on Saturday. The Wiz won that game 7-2, indicative of their head-to-head record this season with KT winning 10, losing five and tying one.

The winner of the Wildcard will then advance to the five-game first round of the playoffs, where they will face the Heroes starting on Oct. 16.

The Heroes came alive in the second half of the season, climbing up the table to briefly challenge for first and second place before dropping back to fourth and then retaking third on Tuesday.

The club has maintained a close line against the Wiz this season, with eight wins, seven losses and a tie, but has outclassed the Tigers with 10 wins and six losses. Against both the second-place LG Twins and first-place Landers, the Heroes have racked up double-digit losses.

The winner of that series will advance to take on the Twins in the five-game second round series starting on Oct. 24.

With 87 wins and 55 losses, the Twins have had a dominant season and maintain a winning head-to-head record against every other KBO team except the Landers and, surprisingly, the eighth-place Lotte Giants.

The winner of that series will move on to face the well-rested Landers in the Korean Series, kicking off on Nov. 1 and finishing by Nov. 9 at the earliest.

Unfortunately, due to the time constraints placed on the league as the weather gets colder and the delayed start to the playoffs, very few games will actually fall on weekends this year.

The first game of the first round of the playoffs will fall on Sunday, Oct. 16, and, if needed, the fifth game will fall on Saturday, Oct. 22.

The only game in the second round of the playoffs that could potentially fall on the weekend is the fifth game which, if needed, will fall on Sunday, Oct. 30.

The fourth game of the Korean Series is set to fall on Saturday, Nov. 5, with all other games to be played on weekdays.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]