baseball-club
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| ▲ Hanwha Eagles players celebrate their 6-4 victory over the KT Wiz in a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 28, 2023, in this photo provided by the Eagles. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Lee Jin-young of the Hanwha Eagles celebrates his two-run home run against the KT Wiz during a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 28, 2023, in this photo provided by the Eagles. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Nick Williams of the Hanwha Eagles rounds first base after hitting a double against the KT Wiz during a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 28, 2023, in this photo provided by the Eagles. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Roh Si-hwan of the Hanwha Eagles hits a solo home run against the KT Wiz during a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, 140 kilometers south of Seoul, on June 28, 2023, in this photo provided by the Eagles. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
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Red-hot Hanwha Eagles eye longest winning streak in 18 yrs
By Yoo Jee-ho
SEOUL, June 29 (Yonhap) -- Taking down opponents at a rate that evokes their golden age, the Hanwha Eagles, perennial doormats in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), have matched their longest winning streak in four years.
The Eagles beat the KT Wiz 6-4 at home in the central city of Daejeon on Wednesday for their sixth straight win. The last time they had won that many was September 2019.
Now, the Eagles sit a win away from their first seven-game winning streak since June 2005.
That year, the Eagles' seventh straight victory came against the LG Twins. It was so long ago that only one player from either team is still active: then Twins rookie first baseman Park Byung-ho, who is now playing for the Wiz at age 36.
The Eagles' winning pitcher in that game was Jeong Min-chul, a franchise legend whose number has been retired and who later served as the club's pitching coach and then general manager.
That 2005 Eagles team won two more games in a row and jumped from fifth to third in the standings. They finished the regular season in fourth place to secure their first postseason trip in four years.
This year's squad has climbed out of the league cellar on the strength of these six consecutive wins. They're in ninth place at 29-37-4 (wins-losses-ties), only half a game behind the Wiz for seventh place and three games back of the Kiwoom Heroes for the fifth and final playoff berth.
The Eagles' most recent postseason appearance came in 2018, and that was their first such trip in 11 years.
From 2019 to 2022, however, the Eagles finished ninth, 10th, 10th and 10th in the 10-team KBO.
The Eagles fired manager Carlos Subero on May 11 this year, when they were in ninth place at 11-19-1. Minor league skipper Choi Won-ho, who had been the team's interim manager in 2020, took over, and the Eagles have been playing .500 baseball since.
Their come-from-behind win on Wednesday served as a microcosm of their recent surge, as they showed the kind of resilience that had been lacking in the recent past.
The Eagles served up four runs in the top of the first inning at Hanwha Life Eagles Park. But they ate into the deficit, scoring a run in the second, another in the fourth and two more in the fifth on a game-tying two-run homer by Lee Jin-young. Roh Si-hwan came through with a go-ahead solo blast in the seventh, and Lee's sacrifice fly in the eighth rounded out the scoring.
After starter Han Seung-hyuk allowed four runs in three innings, six relief pitchers shut down the Wiz over the final six innings, allowing just two hits and striking out five.
During the winning streak, which began on June 21, the Eagles boast the lowest ERA at 1.50. For the season, they rank fifth at 3.99 ERA, a season after finishing last at 4.83.
Their two foreign starters have been carrying the day. The second-year import Felix Pena is 5-1 with a 2.15 ERA since May, and tossed seven brilliant innings on Tuesday against the Wiz despite suffering a cut in his right thumb. Left-hander Ricardo Sanchez, who replaced Burch Smith in May, has been even better at 4-0 with a 1.48 ERA.
Lee Jin-young, a seven-year pro, has settled in as the Eagles' leadoff man since the middle of this month, after bouncing all over the lineup. From the top of the order, Lee has an impressive .431 on-base percentage, with 18 walks against 17 strikeouts in 72 plate appearances.
First baseman/designated hitter Kim In-hwan has been a fixture in the No. 2 spot during the winning streak, though he spent the early portion of the season batting cleanup or fifth.
Roh, their No. 3 hitter since early June, is in the midst of the best season of his five-year career, with team-leading 14 home runs and 47 RBIs in 70 games. He is on pace to shatter his previous career highs of 18 homers and 84 RBIs in 107 games two years ago.
New acquisition Nick Williams made his KBO debut at cleanup spot on Tuesday, and the former big leaguer smacked two doubles in Wednesday's win for his first two hits in South Korea.
Williams pushed Chae Eun-seong down a notch to the No. 5 spot, giving the Eagles a potentially lethal middle of the lineup once Williams finds his footing. A free agent signing from the offseason, Chae is batting a solid .302/.380/.461 with 10 homers and 44 RBIs in 66 games.
Only Mother Nature can stop the Eagles in their tracks these days. Sanchez was scheduled to start Thursday's game against the Wiz, but the status of the 6:30 p.m. contest was up in the air in the early afternoon due to heavy rainfall.
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