The Hanwha Eagles beat the KIA Tigers and escaped their second consecutive loss.
At the seventh game of the "2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League" held at Gwangju Kia Champions Field on Sunday, the Hanwha Eagles won the game 3-2 after a close game that lasted until the 11th inning. The second-ranked Hanwha Eagles posted 37 wins and 26 losses this season, closely trailing the first-ranked LG Twins by 0.5 games. KIA posted 30 wins, 30 losses and one draw this season.
The Hanwha Eagles played against Esteban Floral (middle fielder), Ha Joo-seok (striker), Moon Hyun-bin (left fielder), Chae Eun-seong (first baseman), Lee Jin-young (right fielder), Noh Si-hwan (third baseman), Choi In-ho (designated hitter), Choi Jae-hoon (catcher), and Hwang Young-mook (second baseman). The starting pitchers were Hwang Joon-seo.
KIA teams have starting lineup consisting of Park Chan-ho (striker), Yoon Do-hyun (second baseman), Patrick Wisdom (third baseman), Choi Hyung-woo (designated hitter), Oh Seon-woo (left fielder), Hwang Dae-in (first baseman), Kim Ho-ryeong (middle fielder), Kim Tae-gun (catcher), and Choi Won-jun (right fielder). Starting pitcher Adam Oler.
Hwang pitched better than expected. He had one hit and four outs on 86 pitches in five innings, allowing five strikeouts and one run. Having four outs was a flaw, but he showed his crisis management ability to minimize lost points. The requirement for the winning pitcher was eliminated due to fire in the bullpen, but he did his best to make the fifth start.
From the sixth inning onwards, Joo Hyun-sang (one run in one ⅓ inning), Park Sang-won (one ⅔ inning), Han Seung-hyuk (one inning), Kim Seo-hyun (one inning), Kim Jong-soo (one ⅔ inning), and Kim Bum-soo (⅓ inning) pitched scoreless innings to keep the victory. The winning pitcher was Kim Jong-soo, who was called up to the first team on the day.
Lee Jin-young's performance stood out in the batting lineup. Lee Jin-young led the victory by swinging two hits and two RBIs from five times at bat.
The weight of the starting pitcher was much ahead of Oler, but the game went in an unexpected direction. Hanwha embarrassed KIA when it scored the first run in the top of the fourth inning. With leadoff hitter Ha Joo-seok getting on base with a left-handed hit, the next two hitters stepped down as a mistake, but Ha Joo-seok stole the second base in Lee Jin-young's at-bat with two outs and a first base, setting the stage for the first run. Lee Jin-young's timely hit to the left gave him a 1-0 lead.
Aller was shaken up when he lost the lead. Roh hit a double to the left and Choi was sent to the ground running, causing a two-out full base crisis. Choi Jae-hoon then hit a timely hit to center field, making it 2-0. At that time, second baseman Noh Si-hwan also sought to home, but failed to lead to a big inning as he was tagged out from home.
Kia has been catching up step by step. With one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Kim Ho-ryeong and Kim Tae-gun drew consecutive walks to secure the first and second bases. Kim Ho-ryeong then scored and chased 2-1 thanks to first baseman Chae Eun-sung's home throwing error when Choi Won-joon got on base with a ground ball to the first baseman.
KIA squeezed a run in the bottom of the sixth inning as well. With one out, Wizdom got a walk and Choi hit a superior double, securing the opportunity for runners on the second and third bases with one out. Hanwha replaced pitcher Park Sang-won in the main phenomenon, and Oh Sun-woo hit a ground ball to the shortstop to balance the game 2-2.
With Hanwha's Kim Jong-soo on the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning, leadoff hitter Park Chan-ho got on base with a hit to the left, and Kia seemed to be nearing a finishing win. Hong Jong-pyo's sacrifice bunt resulted in one out and runners on second and third bases, and Wisdom drew a walk. When Choi threw a wild pitch during his at-bat with runners on the first and second bases with one out, Choi hit four pitches automatically, and Oh Seon-woo's well-hit ball led to a finishing hit, but first baseman Chae Eun-seong jumped high and treated it as a straight hit, before stepping on the first base and treating it as a double play. It was a big defense that prevented Hanwha from facing a finishing loss.
Hanwha didn't miss the opportunity that came after the crisis in the top of the 11th inning. When Moon got on base with a hit to the left of the center field after one out, the team replaced him with pinch runner Lee Sang-hyuk. With two outs and runners on the first base, KIA replaced the mound with Yoon Joong-hyun. During Lee Jin-young's at-bat, Yoon Joong-hyun's wild pitch made it to second base with two outs, and Lee Jin-young hit a timely hit in the left-center to seal the 3-2 victory. 메이저놀이터
Meanwhile, Kia Aller pitched 108 pitches, but had no chance of winning. It had six hits, two strikeouts and nine strikeouts in seven innings, before being pulled out without a loss. The team broke the previous record of eight by posting the largest number of strikeouts in an individual match. By mixing various pitching types including fastballs (50), sliders (20), curves (15), sweeper (9), change-up (7), and two-seam fastballs (7), the team cooked the Hanwha lineup. The maximum speed of fastballs is 153 kilometers.