KIA beats Hanwha, gives Choi Won Ho Choi 100 career wins
Hanwha’s Ricardo Sanchez (27) completely shut down the KIA bats.
Sanchez started the game against KIA on March 3 at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field and pitched seven innings of three-hit ball with two walks and seven strikeouts. With a 4-0 lead, he turned the ball over to the bullpen in the bottom of the eighth inning and Hanwha went on to win 4-2.
Sanchez picked up his second win of the season. It was his first win in six games since his first start of the season on March 27 against SSG (5.2 innings, one run). Sanchez has pitched well since the start, consistently holding opponents to two earned runs or less over five innings, with the exception of April 27 against Doosan, when he gave up five runs in 4.1 innings. But he hasn’t pitched dominantly, and his luck hasn’t followed.
In his seventh start of the season, Sanchez pitched his best game against the KIA. He threw 105 pitches for seven innings, including a 154 mph fastball, a 153 mph two-seam fastball, and a 145 mph slider.
After opening the season on a winning streak, Hanwha has been struggling with bullpen anxiety in addition to their offense. The starters need to hold up well, but the mound has been very difficult lately, with Moon Dong-ju going to the second team due to poor performance and Sanchez being sent down early for the first time.
Sanchez allowed just two runners in scoring position on the day against KIA. In the bottom of the second, he gave up a single to left-center to Lee Woo-sung and a walk to Lee Chang-jin to put runners on first and second, but induced Kim Tae-gun to ground into a double play to get the next two outs. In the bottom of the sixth, Sanchez led off with a single to right and allowed Kim to advance to second on a throwing error by right fielder Peraza, but he got Kim Do-young to ground directly to the pitcher and struck out the next batter, Na Sung-beom, to end the inning.
Sanchez said, “We’ve been in a bad spot lately, but I tried to be confident and throw aggressively. “I think my mentality is better than last 카지노 season,” Sanchez said, “even though we were playing the No. 1 KIA, I would pitch the same whether we were playing the No. 1 team or the No. 10 team.
While Sanchez was pitching, the bats took advantage of a leadoff single by Hwang Young-mook in the second inning off KIA starter Hwang Dong-ha, followed by a two-run homer by Jung Eun-won with one out in the fifth inning. In the top of the seventh, Peraza added a solo home run to left field to give Sanchez a boost.
The Hanwha bullpen held on for the 4-2 victory after Lee Min-woo pitched a scoreless eighth inning, but Joo Hyun-sang gave up a two-run homer to Socrates in the ninth.
With the win, Hanwha head coach Choi Won-ho earned his 57th career 100th win as a head coach. Choi won 39 games as the longest-serving acting head coach in history in 2020, 47 when he was named head coach at the start of last season, and 14 this year to reach 100 career wins.
Sanchez concluded: “I’m always grateful for the trust you put in me, even the foreign players. I’ll see you later and congratulate you in person,” Sanchez said.
Jung Eun-won, who led off the game with his first home run of the season, said, “I’ve been disappointing the manager since he took over last year, so I’m glad I was able to help him get his 100th win today.”