The professional baseball team KIA Tigers moved a step closer to the postseason by winning a tight pitching duel.

The KIA Tigers defeated the Kiwoom Heroes 2-0 in the 2026 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League game held at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field, powered by timely hits from Han Jun-su and Harold Castro.

With this victory, the fourth-place KIA improved to 69 wins, 57 losses, and 2 draws with a winning percentage of 0.548, sitting 3.5 games ahead of the fifth-place Doosan Bears and closing within 2.5 games of the third-place LG Twins.

The game, featuring a starting pitching matchup between Adam Oller and An Woo-jin, remained scoreless well into the middle innings.

Oller shut down the Kiwoom lineup through six innings, allowing three hits and three walks while striking out five.

An Woo-jin, making his first appearance in 13 days, also kept KIA scoreless through six innings, giving up five hits and three walks with four strikeouts.

Kiwoom, playing its first game in five days, brought in rookie Park Jun-hyun as a relief pitcher in the bottom of the seventh inning with the score tied 0-0.

This marked the first time Park Jun-hyun took the mound as a reliever, having made all 18 of his appearances this season as a starter.

KIA's leadoff hitter Kim Tae-gun drew a four-pitch walk against Park, but Jeong Hyun-chang failed on a sacrifice bunt attempt, leading to a double play.

However, KIA's late-inning resilience was fierce.

After Park Jeongwoo drew a walk with two outs, Han Jun-su hammered a double off the right-field fence to drive in the valuable opening run.

Gaining momentum, KIA added another run when the next batter, Castro, singled to right field to make it 2-0.

Having secured the lead, KIA deployed its high-leverage bullpen of Jeon Sang-hyun (⅔ inning), Kwak Do-gyu (⅔ inning), Cho Sang-woo (⅔ inning), and Lee Eui-lee (1 inning) after Oller to complete the combined shutout.

The last-place Kiwoom fell into a four-game losing streak.

In Changwon, the seventh-place SSG Landers came from behind to beat the sixth-place NC Dinos 2-1, propelled by Lee Ro-un's stellar pitching.

NC grabbed the first run in the bottom of the second inning when Park Kun-woo singled to right and Kim Hyeongjun doubled down the left-field line to set up a no-out situation with runners on second and third, followed by Chun Jae-hwan's sacrifice fly.

Trailing behind, SSG tied the game 1-1 in the top of the fifth when Ko Myung-jun smashed a solo home run over the right-center field fence.

In the top of the eighth, SSG turned the game around 2-1 following Lee Ji-young's double and Park Seong-han's RBI single to right.

In the bottom of the eighth with one out and a runner on second, NC's Park Min-woo raced toward home plate on Blaine Crim's single to left, but was thrown out by SSG outfielder Guillermo Heredia's accurate throw.

SSG's Lee Ro-un, who recently transitioned to a starting pitcher role, earned the win by pitching a career-high seven innings, allowing just one run on six hits with five strikeouts.

NC starting pitcher Riley Thompson pitched strongly through seven innings, allowing only one run on two hits with eight strikeouts, but the silence of the batting lineup led to a four-game losing skid.

(Photo courtesy of KIA Tigers, Yonhap News)