‘KKKKKK’ Hernandez’s shocking debut, Yeom Gal-ryang’s rave reviews “He pitched well”
“They pitched well”
The LG Twins snapped a four-game losing streak and reclaimed second place in the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League with a 10-3 victory over the Doosan Bears in the 13th game of the season against the ‘Jamsil Rivalry’ at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Monday.
Prior to this game, LG’s mood was very sagging. The team was on a seven-game winning streak in late July, but after the streak came to a halt, the team struggled mightily, going 1-6 in seven games until the previous day (July 7). In particular, LG slumped to third place as the best-of-seven series against Dusan was finalized the day before. However, the humiliation of a ‘sweep’ was avoided. The batting lineup exploded for the first time in a long time, and Eliezer Hernandez, who was brought in as the “championship pitcher,” pitched a dominant game.
It was LG who struck first in the three-game series. LG struck first in the first inning when Austin Dean hit a two-run homer to left field off Doosan starter Keisho Shirakawa with the bases loaded after Shin Min-jae walked. Moon Bo-kyung kept the momentum going with a three-run blast, and Oh scored on a ground ball to the pitcher to make it 3-0. Doosan responded in the bottom of the inning, as Jared Young hit a solo home run off LG starter Eliezer Suarez.
However, the momentum definitely shifted in LG’s favor in the middle of the game. LG scored a run in the top of the fourth inning on Park Dong-won’s grounder to first base on a bases-loaded walk to leadoff hitter Oh Ji-hwan, and extended the lead to 6-1 in the top of the fifth inning when Moon Bo-kyung blasted a two-run double to left field off Shirakawa with runners on first and second after Hong Chang-ki singled and Shin Min-jae bunted.
Newcomer Hernandez gave up the first run of the game in the first inning, but retired the next three batters he faced in order to produce a “KKK” inning. He followed that up with two more strikeouts in the third inning against the batting order of Jeon Min-jae, Yoo Chan-yoo, and Jeong Soo-bin, and in the fourth inning, he gave up a single to Yang Ji with the bases loaded, but was able to keep the Doosan bats at bay without any threats. With his pitch count limited to seven to 80 pitches, Hernandez took the mound in the fifth inning and retired the Doosan bats in order to 파워볼실시간 earn the win in his debut.
LG gave up a run to Doosan in the bottom of the sixth inning on defense after Hernandez went down, but in the top of the seventh inning, after a leadoff double by Koo Bon-hyuk, Hong Chang-ki, Austin, and Oh Ji-hwan all hit RBI singles to make it 9-2 and put the game out of reach. Hong added another run in the top of the eighth. Doosan got one run back in the bottom of the ninth inning when Yang Seok-hwan hit a solo home run, but it was not enough to change the course of the game, as LG won 10-3 and snapped a four-game losing streak.
On the mound, Hernandez earned his first career win, throwing 78 pitches in five innings of work, allowing two hits (one home run), one walk, seven strikeouts and one earned run (one earned) while displaying a whopping seven different pitches. At the plate, Austin led the way with five hits, two doubles (one home run), three RBIs and two runs scored, while Hong Chang-ki had two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored, Moon Bo-kyung had three hits, two RBIs and one run scored, and Oh Ji-hwan had one hit, two RBIs and one run scored.
“Congratulations to Hernandez on his first KBO win,” said manager Yoon Kyung-yup after the game. It’s important how the first game goes when you come to the league, and I think it’s good that he got off to a good start and created an atmosphere that can be expected in a good way.” “As a starter, he pitched well, mixing his sweeper to right-handers and his slider to left-handers, and he pitched five innings within the expected 70 to 80 pitches,” said Yeom.
“In the middle innings, Kim Jin-sung did a great job to keep the momentum going,” said Yoon Kyung-yeop. “Austin’s leadoff home run set the tone for the entire game, and when we needed extra runs, I want to praise the players for staying focused and scoring runs one after another. Thanks to our fans for their support during our four-game losing streak, we were able to break the losing streak and win. We are grateful to them,” he concluded.