KBO teams in middle of standings trying to make late first-half push

KIA Tigers' Kim Do-young celebraetes with teammates after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning against the Doosan Bears during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, Sunday. Courtesy of KIA Tigers

Clubs in the middle of the standings in Korean baseball will look for one final push before the annual All-Star break just around the corner.

This is the final full week of the first half of the 2026 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season. The All-Star break will begin July 10 and the season will resume six days later.

The Hanwha Eagles moved back into a tie for fifth place with the Doosan Bears after sweeping the SSG Landers in their weekend series. Both the Eagles and the Bears are right at .500 — 37-37-2 (wins-losses-ties) for the former and 38-38-2 for the latter.

The Eagles have a tough week ahead, taking on third-place KT Wiz (43-32-1) for three games and then league-leading LG Twins (48-29-0) for three more.

The Bears get two teams near the bottom of the standings, with three games against eighth-place Lotte Giants (33-41-2) and three more against last-place Kiwoom Heroes (27-51-1).

The Wiz ceded second place to the Samsung Lions (44-30-2) after getting swept by them over the weekend. The Lions have won four in a row.

The Lions will try to keep the streak going as they have six games coming up against sub-.500 clubs — three versus the NC Dinos (35-39-1) and three more against the Landers (30-45-2).

The Landers, who lost 13 straight games earlier this year, have fallen to ninth place. They have won just one of their past six series, as their once-promising season is spinning out of control.

The Twins, prior to facing the Eagles, will visit the Heroes.

The Twins are two wins from reaching the 50-win mark this year. Historically, teams that get to the 50-win milestone before anyone have gone on to finish first that season nearly 70 percent of the time.

The Heroes, meanwhile, are 4 1/2 games behind the Landers at the bottom, as they try to avoid becoming the first club in the current 10-team setup to rank last in four consecutive seasons.

The KBO is on the verge of surpassing 7 million fans this week in the fewest games ever.

In 384 games played through Sunday, the teams had drawn 6,953,564 fans, and the 7-million milestone will likely be reached Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest.

Last year, the league reached 7 million in attendance in 405 games.

The KBO has cleared every million mark in record-breaking fashion so far this year.