Samsung Lions win Korean Series for first time in 12 years

The Samsung Lions, one of the founding clubs of Korean professional baseball, reclaimed the Korean Series title Sunday for the first time in 12 years. After dropping Game 1, the Lions reeled off four straight wins to lift the championship trophy for the first time since 2014.

Samsung defeated the KT Wiz 12-1 in Game 5 of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO Postseason Korean Series — a best-of-seven format — at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on Sunday.

It is the franchise's ninth championship overall, including the unified first- and second-half title in 1985, and the first won at Lions Park since the stadium opened in March 2016. Samsung finished second in the regular season this year, becoming the first non-regular-season champion to win the Korean Series in eight years, since the SK Wyverns — now the SSG Landers — accomplished the feat in 2018 as the second-place finisher.

KT had been chasing its first integrated title — sweeping both the regular season and the Korean Series — in five years and only the second in club history. The club could not mount any resistance against Samsung's relentless momentum from the seventh inning of Game 1 onward and settled for the runner-up finish.

KT scored first in the bottom of the third inning, but Samsung quickly turned the game around with four consecutive hits after two outs in the same frame. Koo Ja-wook, who had hit a two-run homer to left-center off Davis Daniel in Game 1, came up with a runner on first and laced a run-scoring double off the right-field fence to tie the game, while Kim Ji-chan, who had reached on a walk, scored to put Samsung ahead.

After KT squandered a one-out, runners-on-first-and-second opportunity in the top of the fifth, Samsung batted through the entire lineup in the bottom half, plating eight runs in an inning that set a new Korean Series record for most at-bats in a single inning (11), effectively deciding the outcome.

With the score 11-1 in the bottom of the eighth, two outs and runners on first and third, Kim Yeong-ung added an RBI single — only for the ball to strike shortstop Kwon Dong-jin in the face, capping a thoroughly miserable day for KT.

Samsung Manager Park Jin-man turned to starter Chris Feddé in the sixth inning to close out the game after Won Tae-in held KT to four hits, struck out five and allowed one run over five innings. Feddé had started Game 2 and thrown seven strong innings allowing just one run. Returning to the mound four days later in relief, he was dominant against a KT lineup that had lost its fight — striking out five and retiring every batter he faced over four perfect innings to earn the save.

Koo Ja-wook, who batted .500 (10-for-20) with one home run, six RBIs and five runs scored in the series, was voted series MVP by the press corps, receiving 72 of 97 ballots (74.2 percent), and was awarded a Kia EV4 vehicle as the prize.

Samsung showcased dominant offense throughout the Korean Series. After losing Game 1 despite scoring seven runs — KT put up eight — the Lions won Game 2 by 3-2, Game 3 by 5-1 and Game 4 by 10-5, before sealing the title with Sunday's 12-1 rout in Game 5.