NC-SSG-Dusan battle it out for 3rd place…KIA’s win sets up 5th place showdown

As the regular season draws to a close, the third through sixth spots in the 2023 Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) are still up for grabs.

The battle for third place between the NC Dinos, SSG Landers, and Doosan Bears is fierce, with the sixth-place KIA Tigers also making a push for a postseason berth in fifth place.

After 11 days, NC (73 wins, 64 losses, 2 draws, 0.533 win percentage) and SSG (73 wins, 64 losses, 3 draws) are tied for third, while Doosan (71 wins, 65 losses, 2 draws, 0.522 win percentage) is fifth.

Sixth-place KIA (70 wins, 68 losses, 2 draws – 0.507 win percentage) trails Doosan by two games.

Third place qualifies for the semifinals, while fourth place has one game in hand for the wild card. Sixth place is out of the postseason.

The odds are starkly split between the four teams in the final sprint.

The team with the magic number to clinch third place is NC.

If NC wins all five of its remaining games, it will have a 0.549 win percentage and finish third on its own.

SSG, which has four games left, has the best win percentage of 0.546.

The best Doosan can do is 0.542, but with one game against NC and two against SSG, Doosan still has a “chance to pull off the upset”.

NC and SSG finished the regular season head-to-head this year with 8 wins and 8 losses.

Barring a draw, the team with one more win – NC with five games left and SSG with four – will stand one place above them.

Doosan plays three of its remaining six games against third-place contenders. Game 1 against NC (Dec. 12) and Game 2 against SSG (Dec. 16-17) are crucial games that will determine Doosan’s final regular season ranking.

With SSG and Doosan within 1.5 games of each other heading into the 16th, the battle for third place becomes even tighter.

Doosan will also have to keep an eye on sixth-place KIA.

If KIA wins all four of its remaining games and Doosan wins three and loses three, the two teams will have the same winning percentage of 0.521. If KIA goes 3-1 and Doosan goes 2-4, the two teams will be tied with a 0.514 winning percentage.

The KBO states in its Game Management System that “if the first and fifth place teams are two clubs, a ranking game will be held.

If Doosan and KIA tie for fifth place, they will play a single-elimination game for fifth place on the 18th.

Prior to that, on the 13th, Doosan and KIA will face off at Jamsil Stadium, which is expected to be a “prestige game” for KIA 스포츠토토.