All good things must come to an end. The Hanwha Eagles snapped their recent four-game losing streak by beating an opposing ace.
Hanwha won 5-2 against the Doosan Bears in the 2023 KBO League regular season at the Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on Wednesday. With the win, Hanwha snapped a four-game losing streak dating back to July 29. They improved their season record to 38 wins, four ties, and 47 losses, cutting the gap to the seventh-place Lotte Giants to two games. Doosan, on the other hand, ended a two-game winning streak and left with 42 losses (1 tie, 46 wins).
The starting matchups were even. Doosan sent out ace Raul Alcantara, and Hanwha sent out Felix Peña, who has pitched like no other ace since May, but Doosan had the edge in weight. Alcantara has been a “nemesis” against Hanwha since his KBO debut, going 7-0 with a 1.43 ERA in nine games against the team, including a 3-0 record with a 0.39 ERA in three games this season.
But on this day, Hanwha got the better of him. Hanwha opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Kim Tae-yeon, the No. 3 hitter, took advantage of Alcantara’s two-pitch 153 km/h fastball. It was a wild pitch, but it’s one that Alcantara has been throwing when he’s been aggressive this season, and Kim overcame it with power. It was the third straight day of good at-bats for the outfielder, who also had three hits against Doosan on the first and second days.
Hanwha added another run in the fourth inning. No. 4 Noh Si-hwan led off with a double to left-center field, advanced to third on the next at-bat, and came home on Oh Sun-jin’s infield single.
Unlike Hanwha, Doosan was left stranded until the middle of the game. They were overwhelmed by Peña’s performance. Peña threw almost as many changeups (42) as fastballs (54) on the day, and the Doosan hitters were unable to capitalize on the pitches that varied from pitch to pitch.
Peña suddenly faltered in the seventh inning. After Kim Jae-ho walked in the seventh, Doosan loaded the bases with one out on singles by Jang Seung-hyun and Kang Seung-ho. Hanwha turned to its bullpen and brought up Kim Bum-soo, who gave up one run on a sacrifice fly by 메이저놀이터 Jung Soo-bin to close out the inning.
Hanwha immediately returned the favor. Hanwha added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh when Lee Jin-young singled and Jung Eun-won walked to put runners on first and second and Lee Do-yoon hit a triple to the right side of the infield. Doosan added another run in the top of the eighth on an RBI single by Jang Seung-hyun, but was unable to capitalize on a bases-loaded opportunity.