▲ Hilliard hits his 41st home run of the season.
Sam Hilliard, the standout foreign hitter for professional baseball team KT Wiz, has tied for the home run lead while playing in front of Kim Do-young of the KIA Tigers.
Hilliard smashed a huge solo home run today (October 1) during an away game against the KIA Tigers in the 2026 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in South Jeolla Province.
Stepping up as the leadoff hitter in the top of the 5th inning with a 4-2 lead, Hilliard hit a massive 125-meter arch over the center field fence off KIA's third pitcher, Hwang Dong-ha.
Extending his home run streak to two consecutive days, Hilliard recorded his 41st of the season, tying with Kim Do-young for first place.
Hilliard has been showcasing a hot batting touch toward the end of the season, slugging 10 home runs during the month of September alone.
Hilliard also picked up his 127th RBI of the season, pulling ahead of second-place Austin Dean (122 RBIs, LG Twins) to run alone in the lead for the category.
Powered by Kim Hyun-soo's decisive two-run home run, KT defeated KIA 7-5.
With their fourth consecutive victory, KT reduced its magic number to 5 for a direct advance to the Korean Series (KS).
The second-place Samsung Lions defeated the Hanwha Eagles 3-2 in a home game in Daegu to claim their fifth straight win.
Hanwha took the first run in the top of the 4th inning with Heo In-seo's sacrifice fly, but Samsung tied the game in the bottom of the 5th when Kim Heon-gon hit a solo home run over the left wall.
In the bottom of the 7th, Lee Jae-hyun drove a two-run home run into the outfield stands to turn the game around at 3-1.
Hanwha managed only to make up one run in the top of the 8th with Kim Tae-yeon's timely hit.
Having won five games in a row, Samsung closed the gap with leader KT to 3 games.
In Incheon, the SSG Landers fended off a pursuit by the LG Twins 6-5.
After Kim Jae-hwan hit a solo home run in the bottom of the 2nd, SSG added 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd with a concentration of 5 hits to pull ahead 4-0.
SSG added 2 more runs in the 4th.
LG pursued with Lee Jae-won's 3-run home run in the top of the 5th and Oh Ji-hwan's solo home run in the 6th, but failed to overturn the game.
Securing their third consecutive win, SSG moved up to 6th place.
Kim Jae-hwan achieved his 300th career home run, becoming the 18th player in history to do so.
In Jamsil, the Doosan Bears defeated the NC Dinos 9-7 to claim their third straight win.
Trailing 6-7, Doosan turned the game around 8-7 in the bottom of the 7th when Kang Seung-ho hit a two-run timely hit, and then sealed the victory in the bottom of the 8th with Yang Seok-hwan's timely hit to add another run.
Fifth-place Doosan narrowed the gap with fourth-place KIA, which fell into a three-game losing streak, to 2 games.
Doosan manager Kim Won-hyung achieved his 300th career win (244 losses and 26 draws), becoming the 22nd manager to reach the milestone.
(Photo provided by KT Wiz, Yonhap News)
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