▲ The first game of the 2026 professional baseball postseason semi-play-offs between the LG Twins and the KIA Tigers held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated City on the 17th. KIA's Kim Do-young hits a come-from-behind solo home run with one out in the bottom of the 4th inning. (Photo: Yonhap News)
The KIA Tigers have secured an advantageous position to advance to the play-offs (best-of-five series) by extending their winning streak against the LG Twins to 8 games, including the regular season.
KIA won 5-1 on today (the 17th) in the first game of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO Postseason semi-play-offs (best-of-five series) held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Jeonnam-Gwangju, fueled by superstar Kim Do-young's one-man show, racking up 4 RBIs combined with 2 home runs.
In the past 17 semi-play-offs held as a best-of-five series up to last year, the probability of the team winning the first game advancing to the play-offs is 70.6% (12 times).
KIA and LG will play the second game of the semi-play-offs tomorrow (the 18th) at 2 PM at the same venue, featuring a starting pitching matchup between Lim Chan-kyu of LG and Adam Oller of KIA.
After LG's Song Chan-ui pulled a sweeper from KIA starting pitcher James Naile to launch a preemptive solo shot over the left-field wall in the 2nd inning, KIA's Harold Castro responded after the changeover by lifting a cutter from LG's Anders Tolhurst for a tying solo arch to right field.
Superstar Kim Do-young broke the tie.
In his second turn at bat with one out and no runners on base in the 4th inning, Kim Do-young lifted Tolhurst's first pitch even before his cheering song came out.
The batted ball, soaring high into the sky, traveled 124 meters and dropped into the left-field stand for a solo home run.
Trailing 1-2 in the top of the 6th inning, LG seized a golden scoring opportunity with no outs and runners on first and second following leadoff batter Park Hae-min's double to right-center and Austin Dean's intentional walk.
However, Moon Jeong-bin struck out, followed by Moon Bo-kyung grounding into a double play from second baseman to shortstop to first baseman, leaving them to bite their fists in frustration.
KIA immediately capitalized on two crucial LG errors in the bottom of the 6th inning to pull away.
The root of the trouble was LG left fielder Song Chan-ui dropping leadoff batter Park Jae-hyun's ordinary fly ball.
Kim Sun-bin's grounder to third base was mishandled by LG third baseman Moon Bo-kyung, bouncing off his glove into the outfield, putting KIA with runners on first and third with no outs.
Kim Do-young hit a sacrifice fly off LG's second relief pitcher Woo Kang-hoon, extending the lead to 3-1.
Kim Do-young's blazing bat exploded in the 8th inning.
With two outs and a runner on first base, he solidly hit a forkball from LG relief pitcher Jang Hyun-sik for a two-run home run over the center-field fence, putting the game away.
It was the culmination of Kim Do-young's solo drama, stretching from a come-from-behind winning solo home run, a sacrifice fly RBI, to a clinching two-run arch.
Naile, who acted as the pillar of KIA's starting rotation in the second half of the season, pitched 7 innings, striking out 6 while allowing only 4 hits and 1 run to the LG batting lineup to harvest the victory.
This marks his second career postseason win, two years since Game 4 of the 2024 Korean Series.
Naile and Kim Do-young, who co-led the victory, each received the Daily MVP and the Potatochip-sponsored Today's Batting Feel Award (winning hit), pocketing 1 million won in prize money each.
LG had to accept defeat in their last chance with two outs and runners on first and second in the top of the 8th inning as Moon Jeong-bin's hit, attacking KIA Jeon Sang-hyun's first pitch, was caught by the center fielder at the warning track.
Including the sellout (18,900 people) for Game 1 of the semi-play-offs, the KBO postseason continued its streak of sellouts for 39 consecutive games since Game 1 of the 2023 Korean Series.
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