KT Wiz extends Pajuk’s winning streak to five games. The Hanwha Eagles fell to their third straight loss.
KT won the second game of the three-game series against Hanwha on Wednesday at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, 3-2, thanks to a walk-off hit by starter Benjamin, a game-winning sacrifice fly by Jang Sung-woo, a home run by Hwang Jae-gyun and a walk-off RBI single by Oh Jae-il.
With the one-run victories for the second consecutive day, KT extended its winning streak to five games and clinched its fifth consecutive best-of-five series. They can now accelerate their chase for the mid-table.
On the other hand, Hanwha, which lost to KT the previous day and dropped to eighth place, lost its third straight game to KT and increased its lead to 1.5 games. They are in danger of falling to last place.
Hanwha’s Ryu Hyun-jin and KT’s Benjamin Benjamin faced off against each other.
As expected, the game was a tight pitcher’s duel. Neither pitcher allowed a run until the fifth inning. Both pitched flawlessly, with Ryu running the show and Benjamin using his “untouchable” mode on his pitches.
Ryu allowed three hits through the fifth inning, all of which came with two outs, so there was no real danger. Benjamin walked the leadoff hitter in the first and second innings, but his dominant stuff got him out of trouble, and he retired back-to-back batters in order in the third through fifth innings.
The balance was tipped in the top of the sixth. As the pitch count increased, Ryu began to falter. He gave up a leadoff single to Rojas. What came next was disappointing. No. 2 Kang Baek-ho hit a hard line drive to the second baseman. Hanwha second baseman Hwang Young-mook couldn’t time his throw as it was too hard and bounded just before the catch. 무료고스톱다운받기 The hit put runners on first and third. If the ball had been caught, it could have been a double play, which would have been unfortunate for Ryu Hyun-jin, but it was definitely a hard hit.
KT scored their first and final run of the day on Jang Jang-woo’s sacrifice fly to left field.
Another disappointment for Ryu was the game against his ‘best friend’ Hwang Jae-gyun, who is the same age as him. In the top of the seventh inning, Hwang Jae-gyun hit a solo shot against Ryu. His fifth home run of the season. With the bases loaded and one out, Ryu threw a 142-kilometer fastball to work the count, which was driven right down the middle. The veteran Hwang Jae-gyun didn’t miss it, and made a perfectly timed catch. Hwang had hit the game-winning hit in the 11th inning of the previous game. Hwang has been rebounding from his early-season slump, and he recently made news when he said he wouldn’t cut off his mustache. Then, he used the power of his mustache to hit the game-winning home run.
Hanwha had its chances. The bottom of the seventh inning was their best chance. One out later, Ahn Chi-hong and Lee Jae-won, two veteran batters, hit back-to-back singles against the struggling Benjamin. Kim Kyung-moon pulled out his pinch-hitter, Chae Eun-sung. However, Chae Eun-sung was forced to retreat and hit a foul fly to first base. Lee Do-yoon, who came up next, also had a good at-bat, but was unfortunate to fly out in front of the shortstop.
The remaining two innings were a bullpen battle.
This is where the momentum completely shifted in KT’s favor. In the top of the eighth inning, KT’s No. 4 hitter, Oh Jae-il, hit a run-scoring single against reliever Lee Min-woo.
However, it was unfortunate that Kim Sang-soo was hit by a hard fastball by Kim Seo-hyun in the next at-bat.
Opportunity after crisis. Hanwha threatened to tie the game when Ahn Chi-hong hit a two-out RBI single against recently depleted KT pitcher Kim Seung-jo, but KT manager Lee Kang-cheol brought in closer Park Young-hyun early with runners on second and third, and Park got Choi In-ho to fly out to center field to end the threat. Park continued on the mound in the ninth inning to get out of the inning and earn his 11th save of the season.
KT starter Benjamin earned his seventh win of the season with seven innings of three-hit, two-walk, eight-strikeout ball. He threw 97 pitches. His fastball was clocked at 149 mph. Ryu Hyun-jin also pitched seven innings and struck out eight, but gave up two runs. He improved to 5-5 on the season. His fastball touched 148 kilometers.