“Can LG avenge the humiliation of seven straight late-season losses?” LG, fired up for revenge, vs. relaxed KIA: “Kim Do-young is waiting again”

[Financial News] The dominant teams that have shared control of the KBO League over the past three years have met far too early on the road to the postseason. The 2024 overall champions, the KIA Tigers, and the 2023 and 2025 champions, the LG Twins, will face off in Game 1 of a fateful best-of-five semi-playoff series at 2 p.m. on the 17th at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field.
It is a brutal rematch just five days later. On the 12th, KIA beat LG in the third-place decider on the final day of the regular season to secure the first spot in the semi-playoffs. LG, meanwhile, had been pushed down to fourth by a painful loss, but easily defeated the fifth-place Doosan Bears in the wild card decider on the 14th, earning a ticket to Gwangju and a chance for revenge.
This is the fifth time the two teams have met in postseason history. KIA (Haitai) won both the 1983 and 1997 Korean Series, while LG claimed victory in the 2002 playoffs and the 2016 wild card decider, remembered as a classic pitching duel.


KIA has the edge in this season’s head-to-head record, with nine wins and seven losses. In particular, after trailing badly at 2–7 through the middle of the season, KIA showed its mettle by sweeping the final seven games against LG and knocking them down to fourth place. The biggest question is whether that late-season cohesion will carry over into the short series.
The key to the matchup is undoubtedly a slugging showdown between the two teams’ big hitters. The bats of Kim Do-young (KIA, 45 home runs) and Austin Dean (LG, 41), who were locked in a nail-biting race for the home run title through the end of the regular season, could determine the fate of the entire series. Kim is especially feared by LG’s pitching staff. He dealt LG crushing blows at pivotal moments, including a go-ahead three-run homer off Go Woo-suk on the 5th of this month and a game-winning two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth that brought down John Kennedy on the 12th. That is why LG manager Youm Kyoung-youb singled out the issue immediately after the wild card decider victory, declaring, “Containing Kim Do-young is key to the semi-playoffs.”



The strategic battle between the benches, characteristic of short series, is also heating up—and it is every bit as fierce as the home-run hitting. The squeeze bunt, a way to squeeze out a single run, is a prime example. KIA veteran Kim Sun-bin pulled off unexpected safety squeezes in both of the team’s games against LG late in the regular season, stealing wins. LG also pulled away from Doosan by scoring an insurance run with Shin Min-jae’s perfectly executed squeeze bunt in the eighth inning of the wild card decider.
KIA has had a full rest and sharpened both its offense and pitching, while LG has built up its game readiness and momentum with a wild card decider victory. The two championship contenders clash in Gwangju, each determined to seize the early advantage in Game 1 and neither willing to give an inch.


[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter