Before their Korean Series began against the KT Wiz last week, the Samsung Lions were widely regarded as a heavy underdog. The Wiz were the No. 1 seed and the best regular-season record netted them a bye to the Korean Series. Prior to this year, the top seeds had won the Korean Series about 86 percent of the time. The Lions, as No. 2 seed, had to play the penultimate round of the postseason, and they needed the full five games to knock off the Kia Tigers. All the while, the Wiz were enjoying their three-week layoff. Between 1989, when the Korea Baseball Organization ditched the split regular-season format, and 2025, teams that had to go through the penultimate postseason round had won the Korean Series only five times. And when the Wiz took the first game of the Korean Series 8-7 last Tuesday at their home in Suwon, it appeared as though the battle would play out the way many had predicted. Game 1 winners had won the Korean Series on 31 out of 42 previous occasions, or about 74 percent of the time. The Lions got a split on the road by taking the second game 3-2 in 12 innings. Back home in
