SEOUL — The KIA Tigers advanced to the Korea Baseball Organization playoffs after every starter in their lineup recorded a hit and scored a run in a rout of the LG Twins. Star hitter Kim Do-young led the way with a towering grand slam that tied the longest home run ever measured in a KBO postseason game.
KIA beat LG 13-1 in Game 3 of the 2026 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO semi-playoff series at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 20th. Having swept Games 1 and 2 at home in Gwangju, the Tigers closed out the best-of-five series 3-0 to claim a playoff berth. KIA will now face the Samsung Lions, the regular-season runner-up, for a spot in the Korean Series. Game 1 of the playoffs is set for the 25th in Daegu.
KIA became just the third team to sweep a best-of-five semi-playoff series in three straight games, after the Samsung Lions in 2008 and the NC Dinos in 2023. It is also KIA's first playoff appearance in 23 years, since 2003. The club won the Korean Series in 2009, 2017 and 2024, but advanced directly to the final each time as the regular-season champion. LG, meanwhile, ended its season without snapping a 10-game losing streak against KIA that stretched back into the regular season.
KIA's lineup pounded out 16 hits, with every starter recording both a hit and a run — the second such performance in semi-playoff history and the fourth in KBO postseason play.
The highlight came off Kim's bat. After flying out in his first at-bat in the first inning, Kim came up again in the top of the second with one out, the bases loaded and KIA leading 3-0. He turned on an inside fastball, the third pitch from LG's second pitcher, John Kennedy, and sent it far over the Jamsil outfield wall. LG's Trackman system clocked the ball at 179.3 kilometers per hour with a distance of 145.8 meters. KBO's official scorer measured the distance at 145 meters.
The KBO said it was the longest home run in semi-playoff history since official distance measurement began in 2000, breaking the previous mark of 135 meters. Across all postseason play, the league added, it tied the longest home run on record — the 145-meter blast by Tyrone Woods of Doosan in Game 6 of the 2001 Korean Series.
KIA starter Keisho Shirakawa, a right-hander from Japan signed under the Asia quota, allowed one run on four hits with nine strikeouts and no walks over five innings. He became the first Japanese pitcher to earn a win in the KBO postseason. LG's foreign ace, Carlos Carrasco, surrendered five runs — four earned — on three hits, including a home run, and two walks in one and one-third innings, handing KIA control of the game early.
The loss brought down the curtain on 44 years of professional baseball at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, LG's home ballpark. The stadium will be demolished and rebuilt as a domed venue.
