Upset Samsung's history renewed after 17 years...In the meantime, the pain of Lotte, a haunted house in autumn, has widened.

Oct 15, 2025

The fourth semi-PO match between Samsung and SSG at Lions Park in Daegu on the 14th. Samsung Diaz, with two outs and a runner on first base, is cheering after hitting an upset two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning. Daegu = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.14/

The fourth semi-PO match between Samsung and SSG at Lions Park in Daegu on the 14th. Samsung's Lee Jae-hyun, with two outs, is cheering after hitting a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth inning. Daegu = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.10.14/

The KBO League game between Lotte and Samsung held at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on the 26th. Lotte won against Samsung 10-9. After the last home game, Lotte players are greeting their home fans in Busan. Director Kim Tae-hyung greets us. Busan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.09.26/

The Samsung Lions tasted the joy of Upset for the first time in 17 years. The gap with another first-year team widened one step further.

In Game 4 of the semi-playoff against SSG Landers in Daegu on the 14th, Samsung won 5-2 with Diaz-Lee Jae-hyun's home run in the ninth inning and won the series with a 3-1 victory. Even after two wild card games and fall baseball, which started fourth in the regular season, he made the playoff stage and met the Hanwha Eagles.

It is the first time in 17 years that the postseason has been upgraded in Samsung's history. Samsung reached the playoffs in 2008 by defeating the Lotte Giants with three wins and no losses in the semi-playoff, but lost to the Doosan Bears with two wins and four losses in the seven-game playoff at the time.

At that time, the semi-playoff was literally a series of light and shade between the 'Veteran' Samsung and the 'early fall' Lotte. For Lotte, it was the debut season of former coach Jerry Royster, and it was the first postseason in eight years to overcome the dark age of 8888577 with a powerful starting lineup led by Song Seung-joon, Son Min-han and Jang Won-jun.

Son Min-han, who was disappointed during the second round of the 2008 semi-playoff. Sports Chosun DB

However, in the first game, starter Song Seung-joon was defeated 3-12, and in the second game, Choi Hyang-nam gave up a two-run final hit to Samsung's Park Jin-man in the top of the seventh inning, losing 3-4.

Game 3 starter Jang Won-jun was also replaced early, but Yeom Jong-seok burned the last flame and led 4-2 until the seventh inning. However, in the bottom of the seventh inning, Kang Young-sik allowed Samsung Yang Joon-hyuk to score a tiebreaking two-run shot, and closer Cortes gave Cho Dong-chan the winning shot and lost 4-6.

Since then, Samsung has achieved the feat of winning the regular season-Korea series for four consecutive years under the leadership of former coach Ryu Joong-il from 2011 to 2014. It was a glorious day with Oh Seung-hwan, who announced his retirement after this season. After finishing second in 2015, the team experienced the worst dark period in the club's history (five consecutive fall baseball failures), but the desperate Samsung reached the playoffs this year, following the 2021 playoffs and last year's Korean Series.

In particular, in this semi-playoff, despite being the fourth-ranked underdog in the regular season, he made the most of his team's home run strength (161) and headed to Daejeon, washing away the mound concerns over starters and bullpens.

The 2008 playoffs were Yeom Jong-seok's retirement season, which won Lotte's second and last Korean Series championship in 1992. Yeom Jong-seok, who will hold his retirement ceremony in 2009, the following year. Sports Chosun DB

Samsung and Lotte are the only two of the 10 professional baseball teams that have not changed their team name or management entity since the first year of professional baseball in 1982. That's why two teams play the classic seeds every year.

Up until 2008, the difference in careers between the two teams was different. Samsung has been a regular autumn baseball team since the 1980s, but it has only won the Korean Series four times, and three of them were achieved in the 2000s (2002, 2005 and 2006). On the other hand, Lotte had a big difference in the number of regular season wins and postseason advances, but it deserved to be on par with each other as it has won two Korean Series championships.

In particular, Lotte won the Korean Series faster. This is the miracle of 1984, when Samsung was given fall phobia for a long time. It is an immortal series in which Choi Dong-won won four games alone after Samsung's alleged intentional defeat.

But now the gap between the two teams is literally 'Number Four Walls'.

Samsung's success in the 2000s cannot be talked about except for Oh Seung-hwan. Oh Seung-hwan's retirement ceremony was held at Daegu Lions Park on Sept. 30. Oh Seung-hwan is in tears saying his retirement speech. Daegu = Reporter Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.9.30/

Samsung has already achieved V8 since winning its first Korean Series title in 2002 and by winning the postwar unified championship in 1985. This year is the challenge to win for the ninth time. The number of times they have advanced to the Korean Series is 18 times in total.

On the other hand, Lotte's fall is almost as if there has been no 'dupdate' since 2008. Not to mention winning, he has never even made it to the Korean Series in the 21st century. The last experience was in 1999, and even fall baseball was only three times (2011-2017). Two of them were eliminated in the semi-playoffs and one in the playoffs.

He has only entered autumn baseball once in the past 13 years. It is the longest-running team in Korean professional baseball, which has only 10 teams to advance to the postseason. In particular, Lotte's position became even more humble as the new team NC Dinos won in 2020 and KT Wiz won in 2021, respectively.

The KBO League game between Lotte and Samsung held at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on the 26th. Lotte won against Samsung 10-9. After the last home game, Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung and players are greeting their home fans in Busan. Busan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.09.26/

This year, he aimed for his first fall baseball in eight years by staying in third place until early August, but since then, he has faced a great fall and finished the season with 66 wins and 7th place, the same as last year. The elimination for the eighth consecutive year is the worst dark period in the club's history, surpassing 2001-2007 before Royster. Park Se-woong's poor performance, which was to continue the name of the "Glasses Ace", was even more regrettable.

Lotte is determined to have a different next year through final training with all the main players of the pitching team, including Park Se-woong, Kim Won-joong, Yoo Kang-nam, and Yoon Dong-hee.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.