KIA, which continues to hope to advance to the postseason, won 6-5 against Lotte Giants at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 12th. 스포츠토토핫 Doosan won 11-1 against NC at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul.
As KIA and Doosan won and NC lost, the gap between the three teams narrowed further. Fourth-place NC 73 wins, 1 draw and 65 losses, fifth-place Doosan 72 wins, 2 draws and 65 losses, and sixth-place KIA 71 wins, 2 draws and 68 losses have 0.5 game differences and 2 game differences, respectively. The gap between NC and KIA is 2.5 games apart.
KIA, the only team in the lower ranks that remains likely to advance to the postseason, has two away games against Doosan on the 13th and two home games against NC on the 16th to 17th. Since only matches with opponents competing in the rankings remain, if they perform well in the matches, they can turn the tables depending on the win and loss of the remaining games between NC and Doosan.
The problem is when the 3 automatic rate comes out. If KIA wins all games, Doosan wins two games and Doosan loses two games except KIA, and NC wins one game and one loss in two games excluding KIA, all three teams will have 74 wins, two draws and 68 losses, achieving three automatic rates.
In this case, NC, Doosan, and KIA will all be tied for 4th place, so the 5th place match will not be held. Instead, according to the KBO League Regulations, Chapter 1 of the KBO regular season, the ranking and record of the teams in Article 3 of the KBO regular season, If the second, third, and fourth places in the KBO regular season are two or more clubs, the ranking will be determined in the order of overall multiple wins in the game between the clubs, overall multiple scores in the game between the clubs, and the previous year’s performance.
When KIA wins all games and achieves a three-automatic rate, Doosan will be in fourth place with 19 wins and 13 losses. NC and KIA are tied with 14 wins, 1 draw and 17 losses, and must calculate multiple points. In terms of the current scores between the three teams, NC leads with 145 points, followed by Doosan 138 points and KIA 135 points. Therefore, if this scoring gap is not reversed, NC will be fifth and KIA will be sixth, and KIA will not advance to the postseason. In order for KIA to turn the tables, it is important to win two games by more than 10 points in two games against NC. If the score is tied, KIA 5th place, which has better performance in the previous year, will move up to fifth place, and NC 6th place will remain in sixth place.
Even if KIA loses one game, it can have a 73 wins and 3 automatic rate. If KIA wins all games against NC after losing against Doosan, Doosan loses all four games except KIA, and NC loses all two games except KIA, all three teams will have 73 wins, 1 draw and 69 losses. But in this case, the calculation is relatively simple. Doosan will rank fourth with the most wins with 20 wins and 12 losses in the face-off between the three teams, NC will rank fifth with 14 wins, 1 draw and 17 losses, and KIA will rank sixth with 13 wins, 1 draw and 18 losses. Therefore, in order for KIA to advance to the postseason in a three-automatic rate scenario, it must catch all the remaining games unconditionally. The game continues to be intense to see which team will be the winner of the competition to advance to the postseason.