The 2024 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season will open on Saturday, 23 March. The defending champions LG Twins will debut hosting the Kiwoom Heroes. The other games scheduled on opening day are:
Lotte Giants @ KT Wiz
NC Dinos @SSG Landers
Doosan Bears @ Hanwha Eagles
Samsung Lions @ Kia Tigers
The KBO season will open one week earlier than in 2021 and 2022. The league stated in a press release that the goal is to avoid having the postseason end in mid-November, which would interfere with the National Team participating in the WBSC Premier12.
The league also decided that games rained out on Fridays and Saturdays would be rescheduled as part of doubleheaders to be played the following day. Doubleheaders won't be scheduled in July and August.
The annual All-Star break will be shortened from seven to four days, from 5 to 8 July. The All-Star Game is scheduled for 6 July.
KBO will start using an automated ball-strike system (ABS, colloquially called the robot umpire) in 2024. The ABS uses a tracking system to make calls on balls and strikes and relays the information to the home plate umpire through an earpiece. The ABS has had a 99.9 per cent success rate in identifying balls and strikes through 19 preseason games.
The KBO plans to test the pitch clock through the first half and then decide whether to use it full-time for the campaign's second half. Pitchers must deliver a pitch within 18 seconds with the bases empty and 23 seconds with runners on. The catcher must be in his box with nine seconds left on the clock, and the batter must be ready to hit with eight seconds to go.
The KBO said that using the clock during preseason games decreased the average time of a nine-inning game by 23 minutes to two hours and 35 minutes.
Manager Joong-il Ryu had a chance to field a National Team selection against the two Major League Baseball (MLB) teams warming up in Seoul for the season opener in Seoul.
The San Diego Padres beat Korea, 1-0, on Sunday, 17 March, in front of 12,497 fans. The only run came without a hit. Starter Dong-ju Moon walked the bases loaded and allowed Xander Bogaerts to score on a two-out wild pitch.
The Los Angeles Dodgers beat Korea, 5-2, on Monday, 18 March.
Korea took a 2-1 lead, thanks to runs batted in by Don-hee Yook and Baek-ho Kang against LA starter Bobby Miller.
The Dodgers scored three against reliever Eui-lee Lee in the bottom half of the frame on a double by Will Smith and a single by Max Muncy, and they added an insurance run in the seventh.
Two pitchers who helped Korea win bronze at the XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup combined a scoreless bottom of the sixth against the Dodgers. Taek-Yeon Kim, the All-World Team reliever, got the first two outs and Junseo Hwang (pictured above), Korea's top starter at the U-18 World Cup, got the third.
