The Samsung Lions host the KIA Tigers in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the KBO Playoff at 1 a.m. ET Sunday (2 p.m. KST) at Daegu Samsung Lions Park. The best-of-five series is tied 2-2 after KIA’s 4-2 comeback win in Game 4 on Friday.
The winner travels to Suwon to open the Korean Series against regular-season champion KT Wiz on Tuesday. The series was pushed back a day once KIA forced a fifth game.
How to Watch Samsung vs. KIA Game 5
In the United States and everywhere else outside South Korea, the game streams free on SOOP — kbo.sooplive.com and the SOOP app — the KBO’s international streaming partner. You don’t need a subscription. The broadcast is in Korean, but the site and app are in English. Replays are typically posted after the game. No U.S. TV network is carrying it. Inside South Korea, TVING has the KBO’s digital rights.
First pitch: 1:00 a.m. ET / 12:00 a.m. CT Sunday; 11:00 p.m. MT / 10:00 p.m. PT Saturday. (WATCH HERE)
Live box score: Follow along at our KIA-Samsung Game 5 scoreboard.
Note: Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, so U.S. clocks fall back an hour mid-game. First pitch is 1:00 a.m. EDT.
Lineups
KIA: Jae-hyun Park LF, Do-yeong Kim 3B, Harold Castro 1B, Sung-bum Na RF, Sun-bin Kim 2B, Jun-su Han DH, Ju-seok Ha SS, Tae-gun Kim C, Jung-woo Park CF. Adam Oller RHP.
Samsung: Ji-chan Kim CF, Seung-gyu Park RF, Ja-wook Koo DH, Lewin Diaz 1B, Hyoung-woo Choi LF, Young-woong Kim 3B, Ji-hyuk Ryu 2B, Min-ho Kang C, Jae-hyeon Lee SS. Ariel Jurado RHP.
KIA is running back the lineup that won Game 4. Manager Lee Beom-ho told reporters before the game that he kept Do-yeong Kim in the two-hole because the order worked Friday, and because Daegu’s dimensions reward loading power hitters near the top.
Samsung kept Young-woong Kim at third base despite his error in Game 4; manager Park Jin-man said he never considered taking him out. Veteran catcher Min-ho Kang is starting despite some physical discomfort.
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Every Pitcher Is Available, and KIA Means It
Lee said his entire staff is on standby. The notable name is Keisho Shirakawa, the Japanese right-hander who started Game 3 and had been lined up to start Sunday. Instead he’s in the bullpen and will throw at least an inning if the situation calls for it.
Veteran lefty Hyeon-jong Yang is also available, but conditionally. Lee said Yang has limited experience working in the middle innings, so if Oller gets through five, he’d rather go to relievers like Do-gyu Kwak or Ui-ri Lee. Dong-ha Hwang was left off because KIA doesn’t need a long outing from him.
Closer Sang-hyun Jeon could appear as early as the eighth and work multiple innings, with someone else finishing the ninth. Lee’s reasoning was that Samsung’s late-inning offense doesn’t leave room to wait.
On facing Jurado, Lee said KIA’s advance work focused on the high fastball that beat them in Game 2 — a pitch he called genuinely difficult, with the best counter being to attack mistakes down. He noted even Castro, one of KIA’s better bats, struggled with it.
Lee packed for five days and has ruled out the alternative: “I’ve erased Gwangju from my mind.” Win and the team flies to Suwon. Lose and it’s home.
Samsung is expected to be equally aggressive. The Lions lost 35-save closer Jae-yun Kim to injury, which is why ace Tae-in Won is finishing games. Won closed Game 2 by retiring the side in order, and Samsung says its whole bullpen is available.
Three Pending Free Agents, One Elimination Game
The most-watched names in this game may be the ones about to hit the open market. KIA’s Ho-ryeong Kim and Samsung’s Tae-in Won and Ja-wook Koo all reach free agency when the season ends, and Korean outlets flagged this series as their last audition before the winter.
Ho-ryeong Kim, CF, KIA. He is not in the starting lineup, the second straight game KIA’s regular center fielder has been held out, with Jung-woo Park in center instead. Kim turns 35 this offseason and reaches free agency for the first time in a career that began in 2015. KIA raised his 2026 salary from 80 million won to 250 million won — a 212.5% jump, the largest raise on the roster, and one Korean outlets read as the club deliberately moving him into a higher compensation tier before he hits the market. The raise put him level with Do-yeong Kim.
