The 2021 KBO League season, also known by naming rights sponsorship as 2021 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League (), was the 40th season in the history of the KBO League.
At the conclusion of the regular season, all five playoff positions were undecided going into the final day of the schedule. The Samsung Lions and KT Wiz met in a tiebreaker game to decide the regular season champion, the first such game since 1985. The NC Dinos became the first defending champion to miss the playoffs since the Kia Tigers in 2010, while the Doosan Bears qualified for the seventh consecutive year. In the postseason, the Korean Series was won by KT Wiz, who defeated the Doosan Bears who had advanced the championship series as a wild card.
2021 also marked the first KBO season for the SSG Landers, formerly known as the SK Wyverns.
Season format The KBO is a 10-team league. Each team plays 144 games, facing the other nine teams 16 times apiece. Games are declared ties after 12 innings (15 in the postseason), and those contests have no bearing on a team’s winning percentage. Five teams make the playoffs, where the league uses a step-ladder format; the fifth- and fourth-placed teams battle in a Wild Card round, the winner faces the three seed, and so on. Teams are limited to three foreign players each. Only two such players are allowed in the lineup at any one time, so teams generally roster two pitchers and one position player.
Standings + Regular season standings Rank Team GP W L D Pct. GB Postseason T-1** KT Wiz 144 76 59 9 .563 — Korean Series T-1* Samsung Lions 144 76 59 9 .563 — Playoff 3 LG Twins144 72 58 14 .554 1½ Semi-playoff 4 Doosan Bears144 71 65 8 .522 5½ Wildcard Game 5 Kiwoom Heroes144 70 67 7 .511 7 6 SSG Landers144 66 64 14 .508 7½Did not qualify 7 NC Dinos144 67 68 9 .496 9 8 Lotte Giants144 65 71 8 .478 11½ 9 Kia Tigers144 58 76 10 .433 17½ 10 Hanwha Eagles144 49 83 12 .371 25½ *Samsung Lions hosted tiebreaker game by virtue of head-to-head record with KT Wiz (9-6-1)
**KT Wiz won against Samsung Lions 1-0 in the tiebreaker game
Postseason
Wild Card The series started with a 1–0 advantage for the fourth-placed team.
Semi-playoff
Playoff
Korean Series
See also 2021 in baseball 2021 Major League Baseball season 2021 Nippon Professional Baseball season
References