Hanwha without Moon Dong-ju, drops to 7th with second straight loss

The Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) have lost two straight games, putting a red flag on their fall baseball challenge.

The Hanwha Eagles lost their second straight game against the LG Twins in the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, 3-14 on Monday, dropping them to seventh place in the league standings.

According to the starting rotation, Moon Dong-ju was supposed to start the game. Moon is 7-7 with a 5.17 ERA in 21 games (111⅓ innings) this season. He struggled in the first half of the season, going 3-6 with a 6.92 ERA in 13 games (66⅓ innings), but rebounded in the second half with a 4-1 record and a 2.60 ERA in eight games (45 innings).

Needing one win to keep their fall baseball hopes alive, Hanwha started Cho Dong-wook instead of Moon Dong-joo. The decision was made to give Moon an extra day of rest due to his shoulder condition. Hanwha head coach Kim Kyung-moon said in a pre-match interview, “I don't know exactly (Moon's condition). It's hard to say if he'll be able to pitch on Tuesday,” he said, expressing concern about Moon's physical condition.

Cho Dong-wook, who started in place of Moon, had gone 1-0 with a 5.81 ERA in 16 games (31 innings) for the first team before this game. His last appearance in the first team was against KT on March 1 (⅓ innings, 4 runs, 1 earned run). 카지노사이트 The game marked his return to the first team after 37 days.

Manager Kim Kyung-moon said, “I'm doing a lot of calculations for today's game. But who knows. Even if (Cho) can't throw long innings, I hope he'll be strong today and throw well from the first to the ninth batter on the mound. I hope he can pitch as well as he struggled in the second team, and then we will prepare all the pitchers who can pitch after that,” said Cho, who was looking forward to his performance.

However, the result was disappointing. Cho took the loss, allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits, two walks, one hit batsman and three strikeouts in two innings. The bullpen of Kim Ki-jung (1⅔ innings, five runs), Han Seung-ju (⅓ innings, four runs), Kim Kyu-yeon (2⅔ innings, three runs), and Hwang Jun-seo (1⅓ innings, no runs) also struggled mightily against the LG bats.

Hanwha has won 60 games, tied 66 games, and won 66 games this season for a .476 winning percentage. The team's fall baseball hopes were bright after a 3-1 win over LG on June 6, when they closed to within 1.5 games of fifth-place Doosan. However, two consecutive losses to LG have widened the gap to 2.5 games over fifth-place KT (64 wins, 2 draws, 65 losses, .496 winning percentage). The league standings also slipped to seventh place, losing the sixth spot to SSG (61 wins, 2 draws, 67 losses, .477 winning percentage).

Of course, there's no guarantee that Hanwha would have won this game with Moon Dong-ju as the starter. However, it's unfortunate for Hanwha that Moon was unavailable on short notice when every game is so important. It will be important for Hanwha to have Moon back healthy in order to fight back. With fall baseball just around the corner, it will be interesting to see if Hanwha can turn things around for the rest of the season.