Dinos making another late push for KBO postseason berth
NC Dinos manager Lee Ho-joon, right, high-fives his players after their 3-2 win over the Kia Tigers in a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Sept. 2. Yonhap
A year after squeezing themselves into the Korean baseball postseason with a late push, the NC Dinos are trying to mount another run as the 2026 campaign enters its final stretch.
Starting this week in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), teams will begin playing makeup games, instead of a pair of three-game sets.
The Dinos are in sixth place at 55-59-2 (wins-losses-ties), 4 1/2 games behind the Doosan Bears (62-57-4) for the final postseason spot. The Dinos had their seven-game winning streak snapped Sunday, while the Bears ended their five-game slide on the same day.
The clubs' earlier wild swings saw the gap between these two clubs narrow from eight games on Aug. 30 to 3 1/2 games prior to Sunday's action.
And these two rivals will clash at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, the Bears' home, for two games on the weekend.
The Bears hold an 8-3-0 edge in their season series against the Dinos. But the Dinos have seven games in hand, making the current, 4 1/2-game gap seem not insurmountable.
Last year, the Dinos won their final nine regular-season games to grab the final postseason spot.
The Bears' offense finally woke up Sunday to the tune of 12 hits and 16 runs against the SSG Landers. In their previous five games, the Bears had managed only four runs, while getting shut out twice in that stretch.
At the top of the standings, the Samsung Lions (72-46-3) have climbed back to first place by winning two straight games. The KT Wiz (69-46-3) have fallen behind by 1 1/2 games after dropping three straight games.
Teams will play a different number of games each week going forward. For instance, the Wiz play the full, six-game slate this week, but the Kiwoom Heroes only have three games.
There will be more traveling than usual, too. The Wiz begin their week against the SSG Landers at home in Suwon, just south of Seoul, on Tuesday, but will play the next day in Daegu, some 200 kilometers southeast of Suwon, against the Lions.
Then for Thursday, the Wiz will be in Busan, about 95 kilometers south of Daegu, for two games against the Lotte Giants. The Wiz will then be back in Suwon for the weekend -- to play the Kia Tigers on Saturday and the Giants on Sunday.
The Dinos will also be all over the map this week, with a game at home in the southeastern city of Changwon, two in Gwangju, some 160 kilometers west of Changwon, and then another in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers north of Gwangju. They will then travel another 140 kilometers north to arrive in Seoul to take on the Bears.