Kia Tigers secure 2024 KBO pennant with 7 games still to play

The Kia Tigers secured the 2024 KBO pennant on Tuesday, earning a ticket straight to the Korean Series with seven games still left to play on the regular season.

The Kia Tigers celebrate after winning the 2024 KBO pennant at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The Kia Tigers secured the 2024 KBO pennant on Tuesday, earning a ticket straight to the Korean Series with seven games still left to play on the regular season.

The Tigers locked down the regular season title despite losing 2-0 to the SSG Landers at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Tuesday, taking the pennant as the Samsung Lions lost 8-4 to the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul.

The Lions’ loss made it mathematically impossible for them to knock Kia off the top spot.

The Tigers and Lions have both played 137 games this season, leaving them with seven games each remaining. That seven proves to be the magic number for Kia, who lead Samsung by eight clear games as of press time.

Kia have 83 wins, 52 losses and two ties this season, eight more than Samsung’s 75-60-2. The reigning champion LG Twins trail in third place with two games in hand, but five full games separating them from the Twins.

Kia arrive in the Korean Series on the back of an impressive first season for rookie manager Lee Bum-ho, who was unexpectedly promoted from hitting coach to the hot seat when former manager Kim Jong-kook was fired amid a bribery scandal in January.

Lee oversaw a squad that included veteran starter and former big league Yang Hyeon-jong, who this season broke the KBO’s all-time strikeout record with 2,049, and 20-year-old leading MVP candidate Kim Do-yeong.

Third baseman Kim became the second-youngest player ever to join the KBO 20-20 club in June and the youngest to join the 30-30 club in August. With 37 home runs and 39 steals as of press time, Kim still has a shot at becoming the second player ever to go 40-40 in the KBO.

Kim Do-yeong rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam in a game against the KT Wiz at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on Monday. [YONHAP]

On top of that, Kim became the first player in KBO history to record at least 10 home runs and 10 steals in a single month in April, and capped off one of the best offensive seasons in KBO history by hitting for the cycle in July — and even then he went the extra mile, hitting a natural cycle (a single, double, triple and home run in that order) in four at-bats for the first time in league history.

As of press time Tuesday, Kim is batting .344 with 37 home runs, 134 runs scored and 105 RBIs. Two more runs scored will give Kim the all-time KBO single-season record.

But while Kim makes headlines, the rest of the Tigers squad has been equally impressive on offense. A predominantly older veteran lineup, the Tigers lead the league in hits, runs, RBIs and total bases, and sit second for doubles and third for home runs and triples.

That performance is good enough to earn the squad a few weeks of rest at the end of the regular season before they are called into action again.

In the KBO, the top five teams advance to the postseason, with the pennant winner earning a direct bye all the way to the championship Korean Series.

There they will play the winner of the second round of playoffs, which is played between the second-place finisher and the winner of the first round of playoffs. The first round of playoffs is between the third-place finisher and the winner of the Wildcard, which is a fourth-place vs. fifth-place faceoff where the higher-ranked team has a one-game advantage.

The Tigers are the winningest team in Korean Series history and hold a perfect 11-for-11 record, meaning they’ve never made it to the championship series without winning it.

The Kia Tigers celebrate after winning the 2024 KBO pennant at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

Their most recent title came in 2017, when they beat the Doosan Bears 4-1 to take the trophy. That year the Tigers had also won the pennant — of the last 20 Korean Series, only two have been won by a team that played through the playoffs: The Doosan Bears beating the SK Wyverns in 2018 and the Lions beating the Bears in 2015.

Kia and Samsung are both guaranteed a spot in the playoffs this year, although the Lions could still drop down a few rungs if things go very badly wrong over the next two weeks. The Twins are technically still at risk, although it would take a very bad run to knock them out of contention.

Further down the table, the fourth-place Bears, fifth-place KT Wiz, sixth-place SSG Landers, seventh-place Lotte Giants and even eighth-place Hanwha Eagles all have a mathematical chance of making it to the postseason, although realistically the race is closest between the Bears, Wiz and Landers with just 2.5 games separating the three teams.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]