"Don't believe everything about the 'top five in the first half.' Last year, three teams changed."

*This content was translated by AI.

The 2026 KBO League regular season concluded its first half on the 9th. Having played 58.9% (424 games) of the total 720 matches, teams experienced mixed fortunes based on the final cutoff for autumn baseball: fifth place.

However, it is difficult to fully trust the current standings. No team can yet afford to relax or give up. Comparing the first-half leaders with the final five teams since the wild card system was introduced for teams ranked fourth through fifth in a 10-team league structure in 2015 reveals significant changes.

From 2015 to last year, a span of 11 years, the regular season in 2020 opened on May 5 due to COVID-19, with no break in between. In the remaining 10 seasons, there were a total of 12 instances where the top five teams differed between the first half and the full season. With an average of 1.2 times per season, this means that at least one team changed every year.

The season with the most significant changes was last year, when no fewer than three teams were different. As of July 10, which marked the end of the first half, the top five teams were Hanwha, LG, Lotte, KIA, and KT in that order. The gap between the first- and second-place teams, Hanwha and LG, was 4.5 games, while the difference between third-place Lotte and eighth-place Samsung was also 4.5 games.

The final outcome was different. LG not only overtook Hanwha by a margin of 1.5 games to claim the championship, but Lotte, KIA, and KT, which had ranked third through fifth in the first half, all failed to make the top five. Instead, SSG (sixth in the first half), Samsung (eighth), and NC (seventh) secured postseason tickets by finishing between third and fifth place.

There have been only two seasons in the past decade — 2019 and 2022 — when the top five teams at the end of the first half matched exactly with the final season standings. In 2016 and 2021, two teams each swapped positions.

In particular, in 2021, Doosan, which was seventh in the first half, finished the pennant race in fourth place and advanced from the Wild Card game to the Korean Series (runner-up). In 2023, KT also rose from seventh in the first half to second place overall in the regular season before reaching the Korean Series (runner-up). In 2017, Lotte finished seventh in the first half but jumped to third place and advanced directly to the playoffs.

The standings gaps this season show a similar pattern to last year. The gap between the top two teams, Samsung and LG, who are tied without any games behind them, and third-place KT is 3.5 games, smaller than the gap between Hanwha and LG last year. Additionally, five teams from fourth-place KIA through Doosan, Hanwha, and NC up to eighth-place Lotte are tightly packed with differences of only 1.5 to 2 games each, meaning the standings can change at any moment depending on results of just two or three games.

The halfway point has just been reached. No one knows which team will be smiling in the fall until the finish line tape comes into view beyond the misty hill.

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*This content was translated by AI.