The professional baseball team Samsung Lions fended off a late-inning chase by the KIA Tigers to secure their third consecutive win and maintain their position at the top.

Samsung defeated KIA 6-4 in their home game of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League held at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu today (September 8).

With this victory, Samsung maintained a 1.5-game lead over the second-place kt wiz.

Samsung opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth with a double play by Lewin Díaz with the bases loaded and no outs, followed by an RBI single from pinch hitter Yang Woo-hyun to make it 2-0.

Leading 2-1 in the fifth with two outs and the bases loaded, Choi Hyung-woo hit a two-run single.

KIA launched a chase in the sixth inning with Kim Do-young's 40th home run of the season.

Kim Do-young, the league leader in home runs, hit a solo shot that cleared the left-field fence off Samsung's second pitcher, Satoshi Miyamori.

Having hit his 39th home run of the season against the Lotte Giants in Busan on August 26, he found his rhythm again after 7 games and reached the 40-home-run mark in a single season for the first time since his debut.

Although he missed out on the record for the youngest player in KBO League history to reach 40 home runs—held by Lee Seung-yuop (Yomiuri Giants coach)—Kim Do-young set other milestones.

First, he became only the second player in KIA franchise history to reach the 40-home-run plateau, following Tracy Sanders in 1999 (40 home runs), and the first among domestic players.

Across the entire KBO League, he is the first domestic player to reach 40 home runs in 8 years, following Kim Jae-hwan (44 home runs) of the Doosan Bears, Park Byung-ho (42 home runs) of the Nexen Heroes, and Han Yoo-sum (41 home runs) of the SK Wyverns in 2018.

Samsung entered the top of the ninth inning leading 6-2 thanks to a two-run homer by Park Seung-gyu in the seventh, and brought in closer Kim Jae-yoon to the mound even though it was not a save situation.

Kim Jae-yoon, who has shown particular weakness at home while displaying flawless pitching on the road this season without allowing a single run, looked shaky once again.

After allowing his 16th solo home run of the season to Park Jae-hyun with one out, he gave up an RBI double to Harold Castro with two outs and a runner on first.

With two outs and a runner on second, he showed nervous form by giving up a foul home run to Na Sung-bum that narrowly missed the left-field foul pole, before barely closing out the game with an infield grounder.

In Daejeon, the Hanwha Eagles beat the Doosan Bears 6-1, led by Ryu Hyun-jin's stellar pitching for his 9th win of the season and Kang Baek-ho's 30th home run, extending their winning streak to 4 games.

Seventh-place Hanwha narrowed the gap with fifth-place Doosan to 8 games, keeping alive their slim hopes for fall baseball.

Hanwha starting pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin shut down the Doosan lineup with 6 innings, 3 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, and 3 strikeouts, claiming his 9th win (5 losses) of the season.

After earning his 8th win of the season against the KIA Tigers in Daejeon on June 11, Ryu experienced the joy of victory once again after enduring 10 appearances without a win, picking up only 3 losses.

In the batting lineup, Huh In-seo and Kang Baek-ho powered home runs to tilt the momentum in Hanwha's favor.

Huh In-seo launched his 18th two-run homer of the season in the second inning, and Kang Baek-ho blasted his 30th two-run homer in the third.

Both home runs came off Doosan starting pitcher Choi Seung-yong.

Kang Baek-ho, whose previous personal best for a single season was 29 home runs during his debut season in 2018, conquered his first 30-home-run season with this shot.

In Suwon, kt wiz snapped a three-game losing streak by defeating the SSG Landers 3-1, propelled by So Hyung-jun's stellar pitching.

Kt starting pitcher So Hyung-jun shut down the SSG lineup with 7 innings, 4 hits, 3 strikeouts, and 1 run, claiming his 7th win (3 losses) of the season.

So Hyung-jun maintained his strong streak against SSG, extending his personal winning streak against them to 4 games.

Kt created a bases-loaded opportunity in the second inning with one out following consecutive hits by Cho Dae-hyun and Jang Jun-won, and an infield hit by Choi Won-jun.

Although Kim Sang-su struck out, Ahn Hyun-min played the role of solver with a two-run single.

In the ensuing situation with two outs and runners on first and third, Choi Won-jun crossed home plate through a double-steal strategy.

In Jamsil, the league's bottom-ranked Kiwoom Heroes defeated the desperate LG Twins 8-3 to secure their second consecutive win.

Kiwoom, which took the first lead in the third inning on Choo Jae-hyun's RBI single, demonstrated strong batting concentration in the sixth inning by scoring a massive 6 runs, including 3 runs solely on bases-loaded walks.

In the seventh inning, Seo Kun-chang's RBI single widened the gap to 8-0, sealing the victory.

LG clawed back 3 runs in the eighth inning with Austin Dean's two-run double and Moon Jung-bin's RBI single before bowing out.

Austin, who crossed home plate on Moon Jung-bin's RBI single to complete 100 runs (along with 115 RBIs), became the 43rd player in KBO League history to record 100 RBIs and 100 runs in a season.

Kiwoom starting pitcher Ha Young-min pitched 6 scoreless innings of stellar baseball to claim his 6th win (8 losses) of the season.

In Changwon, the Lotte Giants defeated the NC Dinos 6-3 in the Nakdong River Derby.

Lotte snapped a three-game losing streak to jump from 9th to 8th place, while 6th-place NC suffered their second straight loss.

Lotte veteran Jun Jun-woo, who returned to the first team 46 days prior ahead of the day's game, contributed to the victory by hitting a two-run single in the third inning with a 1-0 lead.

Additionally, Lotte's Go Seung-min decorated his 16th home run of the season with a game-winning two-run shot in the fifth inning while tied 3-3.

NC pitcher Kim Jin-ho was ejected for a headshot after hitting Lotte catcher Park Geun-woo near the head with a fastball in the sixth inning.

This is the 15th headshot ejection in the league this season.

(Photo: Yonhap News)