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Tiebreaker game in play as battle for final KBO postseason spot goes down to wire

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KT Wiz pitcher Ko Young-pyo pitches against the Kiwoom Heroes during the teams' Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province,  Sept. 28, in this photo provided by the Wiz. Yonhap

KT Wiz pitcher Ko Young-pyo pitches against the Kiwoom Heroes during the teams' Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Sept. 28, in this photo provided by the Wiz. Yonhap

Two rival clubs fighting for their postseason lives both won in the top South Korean baseball league Saturday, as their battle for the last playoff ticket will go down to the wire.

The KT Wiz rallied for a 10-7 win over the Kiwoom Heroes at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, just south of Seoul in their final game of this Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular season. They finished at 72-70-2 (wins-losses-ties).

With the win, they have secured at least a tie for fifth place and thus the first-ever tiebreaker game against the SSG Landers.

The Landers beat the Hanwha Eagles 6-2 Saturday to improve to 71-70-2 for the season. If the Landers beat the Heroes in their regular season finale Monday, it will set up that tiebreaker contest against the Wiz, Tuesday.

If the Landers lose, then the Wiz will grab the final postseason spot. In that scenario, the Wiz will visit the fourth-ranked Doosan Bears for the wild card game Wednesday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.

As the lower seed, the Wiz must win two straight games over the Bears to advance to the next round. The Bears, on the other hand, will only need a tie or a win in two tries to reach the next stage.

The Wiz scored first against the Heroes before giving up two runs each in the top second, third and fourth innings to go down 6-1. But then in the bottom fifth, the Wiz pulled even with a five-spot.

Oh Jae-il's go-ahead single in the bottom fifth put the Wiz up by 7-6, and they added another run in the sixth and two more in the seventh for the big comeback win.

Ko Young-pyo, normally a starter for the Wiz, pitched five innings of one-hit ball in relief for his first win out of the bullpen since Aug. 16, 2016.

The Landers erased an early 2-0 deficit at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul. They got a run apiece in the top of the second, third and fourth innings, and added insurance runs in the seventh and eighth.

The KBO introduced a fifth-place tiebreaker game in 2022, but it has yet to materialize. The Wiz won a first-place tiebreaker game in 2021 and went on to capture the first Korean Series title in club history. (Yonhap)



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