Hanwha defeated its nemesis, snapping a four-game losing streak and a five-game losing streak against Doosan at the same time.
Hanwha won a 5-1 home game against Doosan in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League on Wednesday at Daejeon’s Hanwha Life Eagles Park.
Starting pitcher Felix Peña was in awe-inspiring form, allowing just one run on seven hits over 6 1/3 innings to pick up his eighth win of the season. Kim Tae-yeon’s leadoff home run in the first inning proved to be the difference. Doosan starter Raul Alcantara, who was 7-0 in nine games against Hanwha, suffered his first loss after allowing three runs in six innings.
Eighth-ranked Hanwha, which snapped a five-game losing streak against Doosan with its fourth straight loss, improved to 38-47-1. Third-place Doosan, which ended a two-game winning streak, is 46-42-1.
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Ace Peña gives up one run on seven hits as Hanwha snaps losing streak
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Hanwha’s ace Peña pitched like an ace to help the team end its losing streak. He walked Doosan’s top hitter, Jung Soo-bin, in the first inning and allowed a stolen base, but retired the next three batters to start the inning. He struck out both Heo Kyung-min and Yang Seok-hwan on three pitches with a changeup. Heo froze on a changeup to the body of Peña, and Yang’s bat went wide.
In the second, Kim Jae-ho singled, but Peña retired the next three batters to end the inning on 11 pitches. In the fourth inning, he gave up a walk to Kim Jae-hwan with two outs, but struck out Kim Jae-ho with a changeup. In the fifth, he retired the next three batters without a walk and struck out the side in order in the sixth. After three consecutive changeups to Yang, he induced a swinging strikeout with a four-pitch curveball.
He returned to the mound in the seventh, but after walking Kim Jae-ho with one out, Jang Seung-hyun and Kang Seung-ho were hit by pitches to load the bases. Reliever Kim Bum-soo gave up a sacrifice fly to right field to Jung Soo-bin and a walk to Heo Kyung-min to load the bases, but he got Jose Rojas to ground out to third to preserve the win for Peña.
Peña improved to 8-5 with his 14th quality start of the season, allowing one run on four hits in 6 1/3 innings with six strikeouts and three walks, lowering his ERA from 2.77 to 2.69. He topped out at 151 mph and averaged 147 mph with a fastball (54), changeup (42) and slider (eight). Five of his six strikeouts were on his changeup.
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Kim Tae-yeon pitched a two-run first inning to hand Alcantara his first career loss.
First inning.
With center fielder Chae Eun-sung out with a sore right hamstring, Kim Tae-yeon started at third for the first time this season. After Jung Eun-won drew a nine-pitch walk in the top of the first inning, Kim Tae-yeon showed a swing worthy of a No. 3 hitter. After picking off Doosan starter Raul Alcantara’s first-pitch slider, she pulled the second pitch, a 149-meter fastball high on the body, 메이저놀이터 over the left-field fence. It traveled 120 meters for his third home run of the season. He was 3-for-5 against Alcantara this season, and this was his first home run of the day.Hanwha added a run in the fourth inning. Noh Si-hwan led off with a double to left-center field on Alcantara’s first-pitch forkball. Kim In-hwan grounded out to second.