“Korean Monster” Ryu Hyun-jin showed off a good pitching and saved the fire of Hanwha Eagles’ fall baseball.메이저사이트
Ryu Hyun-jin started in an away game against the SSG Landers in the 2024 KBO League regular season at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 18th.
Ryu Hyun-jin, who wrote 98 wins, 52 losses, one save and a 2.80 ERA in the KBO League from 2006 to 2012, entered the Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2013 to 2023 and wrote 78 wins, 48 losses, one save and a 3.27 ERA, is a left-hander ace who represents Korean baseball in name and reality. Since then, he has returned to Hanwha ahead of this season.
Ryu Hyun-jin, who had a hard time adapting to the KBO League at the beginning of the season, soon regained the prestige of the Korean Monster that everyone knew. He was shaken up in the match against the Suwon KT Wiz on July 31 (five innings of 12 hits, one homer, one strikeout, three strikeouts, six runs and five earned runs) and the match against the Daegu Samsung Lions on July 7 (five innings of 12 hits, one homer, two strikeouts, three strikeouts, seven runs), but rebounded in the match against the Daejeon LG Twins on the 13th with two hits, two walks, and six strikeouts in five innings.
Since then, Ryu has shown off his good form from the beginning. He had a heavy hit by Choo Shin-soo in the bottom of the first inning, but tied Park Ji-hwan and Choi Jung with shortstop double play and strikeouts, respectively. In the bottom of the second inning, he struck out Guillermo Herredia and gave up a hit to Han Yu-sum, but he cooked Lee Ji-young and Kim Sung-hyun with fly to center and ground ball to shortstop.
He continued his pitching at the bottom of the third inning. He calmly increased the number of outs against Jihoon Choi (ground ball at second base), Oh Tae-gon (strikeout at second base), and Choo Shin-soo (ground ball at second base), completing his first three-out inning on the day. He also defeated Park Ji-hwan (strikeout), Choi Jeong (not out), and Herredia (ground ball at catcher) in order at the bottom of the fourth inning.
His first run came in the bottom of the fifth inning. He induced Han Yu-sum to ground out to second base, but Lee Ji-young’s left-handed double and Kim Sung-hyun’s fly to center field drove him to second base with two outs. Here, Ryu gave Jihoon Choi a timely hit to center field, and took the first run. Oh Tae-gon’s hit to the left and Choo walked to face the bases loaded with two outs, but he did not allow any more runs, leading Park Ji-hwan to strike out.
The bottom of the sixth inning was neat again. Choi Jeong (straight hit to third baseman), Herredia (straight hit to second baseman), and Han Yu-sum (three strikeouts) were blocked with misfires.
Ryu took the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning, and allowed leadoff hitter Lee Ji-young to have a hit in the middle. When Kim Seong-hyeon was then struck out, the Hanwha bench replaced the pitcher with Park Sang-won. As Park Sang-won did not allow a home run to the successor, Ryu’s earned run did not increase.
The final result was six hits, one out and eight strikeouts and one run during 6.1 innings. With a total of 92 balls on display, Ryu mixed fastballs (27 pitches), changeups (21 pitches), two-seam (15 pitches), curves (11 pitches), cutter (10 pitches), and slider (8 pitches). With his team leading 6 to 1, Ryu handed the ball over to his successor Park Sang-won, who did not allow the team to tie the game and won the game 7 to 1, which is expected to result in seven wins (seven losses) this season. He also became the 38th player in KBO history to surpass 1,400 innings overall.
In particular, the performance was significant given that it revived the hope of Hanwha in its fall baseball league. With the victory, Hanwha had 52 wins, two draws and 59 losses, and maintained its seventh position. It is 2.5 games behind fifth-ranked SSG (56 wins, one draw and 58 losses), which is the last line to advance to the post season. Until the latest series, the Korean team seemed to have a long way to go by 5.5 games, but the team made a clean sweep to catch up with the Korean team.
Hanwha has 31 more games to play. The team’s future moves will determine whether it will advance to the fall baseball league. Amid this development, what Hanwha needs the most is the presence of its ace pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin. Will Ryu be able to lead the team to the postseason by showing stellar performance in upcoming games.