Baseball league adjusts starting times for games amid cooler conditions

Seoul, August 18 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean baseball league has announced that game start times will be adjusted due to decreasing severe heat nationwide. Starting next Tuesday, weekday games will resume at 6:30 p.m. and weekend games will return to 6 p.m. first pitch. For games scheduled after this summer season, weekend games will begin at 5 p.m., while the starting time for weekday games remains unchanged.

In August, the KBO initially set all games to start at 7 p.m. due to a record-breaking heat wave, leading to the cancellation of all games from August 5 to 9 for safety reasons. The season resumed on August 12.

The league may push back starting times by up to 7:30 p.m., depending on weather conditions. Following the heat wave, the KBO introduced cooling breaks after the third and seventh innings. Starting Tuesday, these breaks will only occur if the host city is under a heat advisory by 1 p.m. on game day.