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The fierce race for third place between KIA and LG in professional baseball is heating up. Third-place KIA secured a comeback victory against NC, widening the gap with LG to one game and getting closer to securing a direct berth in the semi-playoffs.

Reporter Bae Jeonghun has the details.

[Reporter]

Down 2 to 1 in the 4th inning, KIA leveled the score with Kim Ho-ryung's RBI single up the middle, and then succeeded in turning the game around in the 6th.

Capitalizing on control troubles from NC starting pitcher Koo Chang-mo to set up a two-out opportunity with runners on first and third, KIA scored the winning run during Lee Ho-yeon's at-bat when Koo threw a wild pitch.

With an RBI double by Kim Sun-bin in the 8th and a decisive three-run homer by Castro in the 9th, KIA defeated NC 7 to 2, extending their lead over 4th-place LG to one game.

If KIA wins two of their remaining three games or defeats LG in their head-to-head matchup on October 12, they will clinch third place in the regular season on their own merit.

[Na Sung-bum / KIA Captain: All of our players are determined to keep winning, both today and in the remaining games. Even when we are trailing, the current mood is that we will not lose, so we will make sure to play great games until the very end.]

Fourth-place LG, in urgent need of wins, suffered a painful defeat against Lotte.

With their offense completely shut down by an unexpected stellar pitching performance from Lotte rookie Kim Hangyul, LG starting pitcher Carrasco allowed a flurry of hits in the 2nd inning to give up three runs first. Trailing 3 to 1 in the 7th, LG had to accept the defeat after committing back-to-back errors and giving up a decisive three-run homer to Jeon Min-jae.

Lotte's Reyes recorded his 204th hit of the season with an RBI single up the middle in the 8th, tying him with KT's Choi Won-jun in the race for the all-time single-season hits record.

Led by starting pitcher Lee로운's stellar performance of one run allowed over 6 innings, SSG defeated Samsung 3 to 1 to clinch 6th place.

[Video Editing: Lee Jae-seong]