The nation's top baseball league on Tuesday announced the playoff schedule for this fall.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the postseason will get underway on Oct. 8 and the championship Korean Series, if it goes the distance, will end on Nov. 1.
In the eight-team KBO, the top four teams advance to the playoffs. The regular season champion gets a bye to the Korean Series, while the No. 2 team goes straight to the second round. The No. 3 and the No. 4 teams square off in the best-of-five first round, and the winner goes on to meet the second-seeded club. The second round is also best-of-five, and the Korean Series is best-of-seven.
Through Monday's games, the defending champions Samsung Lions ranked first with 72 wins, 48 losses and two ties, leading the SK Wyverns by 6.5 games with 11 games left to play. The Wyverns in second place led the Lotte Giants by 2.5 games. The Giants and the Doosan Bears were tied for third, with the Bears having three games in hand on Lotte.
Teams play 133 games a season here, and through Monday, the KBO teams had between seven and 11 games left to play. The regular season is scheduled to end on Oct. 6, as teams continue to play makeup games from earlier rainouts. Double headers will be scheduled if necessary, the league office said.
The league office said if there are further weather delays during the rest of the season, the playoff games will be rescheduled. However, if regular season games between non-playoff clubs are canceled due to inclement weather, those games will not be rescheduled.
In the playoffs, a tie will be declared after 15 innings, up from 12 innings in the regular season, and an additional game will be played. The games will start at 6 p.m. on weekdays and 2 p.m. on weekends.
In the first two rounds, teams with a better regular season record will have the home advantage.
In the Korean Series, the two finalists will each host the first two games of the series. If the team with a better regular season record plays at a park with a capacity smaller than 25,000, then Games 5 through 7 of the Korean Series, if necessary, will be played at Jamsil Stadium, which seats 27,000 in the nation's capital.
However, if the team with the home advantage plays at a park with at least 25,000 seats, it will host the first two games and Games 6 and 7 of the Korean Series.
According to the KBO, three stadiums can hold more than 25,000 people in the country: Jamsil in Seoul, Sajik Stadium in Busan with 28,500 and Munhak Stadium in Incheon with 27,800. The Bears are based at Jamsil, the Giants at Sajik and the Wyverns at Munhak.
Daegu Baseball Stadium, the Lions' home and one of the league's most decrepit ballparks that opened in 1948, holds only 10,000. (Yonhap)