The 2023 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) league opened on Saturday, 1 April with two of the five games going into extra innings.
The 2022 runner-up Kiwoom Heroes defeated the Hanwha Eagles in 10 innings in front of 16,000 fans. A bases-loaded single by Hyung-jong Lee made it 3-2 in the bottom of the 10th.
The Doosan Bears used a two-run homer run by former Major Leaguer José Rojas in the bottom of the 11th to beat the Lotte Giants, 12-10, in front of a sellout crowd.
The defending Korean Series champions, SSG Landers, opened with a 4-1 win against the Kia Tigers.
Five teams, including Landers and Heroes, are tied in first place with a 2-1 record after five games.
The Landers became the first team ever to spend an entire regular season in first place and go on to win the Korean Series. They can become the first back-to-back champions since the 2015-2016 Doosan Bears.
Former Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Shin-soo Choo is still the Landers' marquee player at age 41. The club added three new import players: pitchers Enny Romero, Kirk McCarty, and outfielder Guillermo Heredia. Romero, a 32-year left-hander with MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) experience, missed the pre-season with shoulder discomfort.
The reigning MVP Jung-hoo Lee, who helped Korea to a silver medal in the WBSC Premier12 2019 and competed in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (pictured above), is the player to watch on the Kiwoom Heroes roster. Their strength is the pitchers at the top of the rotation: 23-year-old right-hander Woo-Jiin An and American left-handed veteran Eric Jokisch.
The two Seoul giants, LG Twins and Doosan Bears, will have first-year managers.
Veteran Kyoung-Youb Youm will manage the Twins, while the Bears hired legendary slugger Seung-Yuop Lee, who will debut as a skipper.
Former stellar shortstop Jin-man Park, a Beijing 2008 gold medallist and Sydney 2000 bronze medallist, will start his first full season as manager of the Samsung Lions.
The 144-game regular season will end on 10 September, with any rained-out games to be played the following week.
The only break of the season (14-20 July) will come with the All-Star Game, scheduled on 15 July. The KBO league won't pause during the Asian Games.
The top five teams will advance to the playoffs, which begin with the fifth and fourth-place finishers competing in a Wild Card round. In the step-ladder format, the regular season winner will advance directly to the Korean Series.
