SSG Landers slugger Kim Jae-hwan became the 18th player in KBO League history to reach 300 career home runs. Starting as the No. 6 designated hitter against the LG Twins at Incheon SSG Landers Field on Oct. 1, Kim led off his day with a solo homer in the second — a 130-meter shot to center off LG starter Lim Chan-kyu’s fourth pitch, a 141 km/h fastball down the middle. It was his 24th of the season. (Star News, 2026-10-01)

Kim, who had 299 homers in 1,610 games entering the day, reached 300 in the first at-bat of his 1,611th game — 11 days after his 299th on Sept. 20 against the Kiwoom Heroes. (Star News, 2026-10-01)

The road was long. Drafted fourth overall in the first round of the 2008 KBO rookie draft by the Doosan Bears out of Incheon High, Kim hit his first professional homer on April 14, 2011 against the Lotte Giants after his military service. He reached 100 on a three-run homer off KIA’s Pat Dean on June 3, 2018, and that season won home-run and RBI titles (44 HR, 133 RBI) plus regular-season MVP. His 200th came on a three-run shot against KIA on Oct. 29, 2021. (Star News, 2026-10-01)

Kim hit 276 of his homers with Doosan, then opted out last winter after 18 years with the club and returned to his hometown Incheon on a two-year, 2.2-billion-won deal with SSG. (Star News, 2026-10-01)

SSG rode his homer to a 6-5 win. Guillermo Heredia’s sacrifice fly and back-to-back RBI singles from Jeon Eui-san and Ko Myeong-jun made it 4-0 in the third, and two more in the fourth stretched it to 6-0. LG fought back on Lee Jae-won’s 130-meter three-run homer in the fifth, Oh Ji-hwan’s solo shot in the sixth and an SSG infield error in the seventh to make it 6-5, but closer Cho Byung-hyun retired Song Chan-eui on a fly to center with two outs and a runner on third in the ninth to end it. (MoneyToday, 2026-10-01; Ilgan Sports, 2026-10-01)

SSG swept the final three-game set against LG for the first time in 1,957 days, since May 21-23, 2021. LG dropped its fifth straight and saw its grip on third place loosen. SSG moved to 61-5-71; LG fell to 75-1-60. (MoneyToday, 2026-10-01; Ilgan Sports, 2026-10-01)

Kim Min became the third pitcher ever, after Kim Jin-sung and Noh Kyung-eun, to record 70 appearances and 20 holds in three straight seasons, and SSG drew 15,772 fans to top 1.2 million home attendance (1,213,900) for the second straight year. (MoneyToday, 2026-10-01)

Samsung Lions shortstop Lee Jae-hyun made history of his own in Daegu. With two outs and a runner on first in the seventh against the Hanwha Eagles, he hit a two-run homer for a 3-1 lead — his 17th of the season and a new club record for homers in a season by a Korean-born shortstop, passing Kim Tae-kyun’s 16 in 1997. Sidelined by injuries for much of the year, Lee played only 77 games but already has more homers than last year’s 139-game campaign. (Ilgan Sports, 2026-10-01)

Meanwhile the KBO League passed 12 million fans (12,069,596) in just 684 games — the fewest games ever needed and the second straight year above 12 million, 19 games faster than last year’s record of 703. (SportsWorld, 2026-10-01)

Sources: Star News, 2026-10-01; MoneyToday, 2026-10-01; Ilgan Sports, 2026-10-01; SportsWorld, 2026-10-01