Hanwha restarts mid-tier leap
The Hanwha Eagles, who have struggled since the second half of the season, are once again challenging for a mid-table spot after defeating the Kiwoom Heroes to move up to eighth place.
Hanwha had dropped to ninth place in the league after losing two games in a two-game series against the NC Dinos on April 22. It was the first game of the second half of the season after the All-Star break, but unlike the first half, the team didn’t put up much of a fight.
However, any concerns about a slow start to the second half were put to rest against Kiwoom.
Hanwha cruised to a 16-6 victory over Kiwoom on April 25. The win snapped a two-game losing streak and moved Hanwha into eighth place with 35 wins, four draws and 42 losses, the same winning percentage as Kiwoom (40 wins, two draws and 48 losses).
Trailing 3-6 going into the seventh inning, Hanwha exploded for 13 runs in the top of the eighth on 10 hits (one home run) and five walks. The 13 runs in one inning is tied for the second-most in history, with only three teams – LG, Hyundai, and Samsung – having achieved the feat.
Hanwha also won the second game against Kiwoom in a close contest.
In the game that went to 10 extra innings, Nick Williams and Lee Jin-young hit home runs in the top of the second and third innings, respectively, to extend the lead to 4-1, but Kiwoom rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth.메이저놀이터
However, in the top of the 10th, Williams reached on an error by the shortstop and was followed by a single to left field and a walk to Lee Jin-young to load the bases. Hanwha then scored a run on a pushoff single by Noh Si-hwan, giving Hanwha a 5-4 victory. With the win, Hanwha secured the best-of-three series against Kiwoom, which was ranked eighth in the league last week, going 2-1.
Hanwha also secured a win against SSG Landers, the league’s second-best team.
Hanwha traveled to Munhwa to take on SSG on April 28. Hanwha scored three runs early in the game to take the lead, but SSG didn’t go away easily and tied the game in the bottom of the eighth. However, Hanwha scored one run in the bottom of the ninth inning on a grand slam by Noh Si-hwan to win the game 4-3 and defeat SSG.
It will be interesting to see if Hanwha can turn things around and make the leap to mid-table.
As of the 29th, Hanwha is in eighth place in the league with a winning percentage of 0.457. They are currently 3.5 games behind fifth-place KT Wiz, which is the playoff standard.
They are just two games behind sixth-place Lotte and seventh-place Gia.
This week, Hanwha will host the Doosan Bears in Daejeon on April 1 before traveling to Gwangju for a three-game series against the Kia Tigers on April 4.
Hanwha is 3-6 against Doosan, while Kia is 6-3.
The outcome of the Doosan and Kia games this week will likely determine whether Hanwha makes the leap to mid-table. In particular, the match against Kia will be crucial to their position in the standings, and will be a crucial test for the direction of the race in the second half of the season.