Hanwha Eagles special rookie Kim Seo-hyun could not laugh at his return to the first team after a long absence.
Kim Seo-hyun climbed the mound in the top of the 4th inning in the home game against Doosan Bears in the 2023 Professional Baseball KBO League held at Daejeon Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park on the 11th, with Hanwha trailing 0-7.
shook from the start. He threw a ball to lead batter Kim Jae-ho and hit Jose Rojas in the middle of the right. Fortunately, Yang Seok-hwan struck out, but gave Kim Jae-hwan a walk and reached the bases with 1 out. Here, Kim Seo-hyun put Kang Seung-ho to sleep with a shortstop ground ball, but in the meantime, he had to watch third base runner Kim Jae-ho step on the groove. He led Kim In-tae to the center field fly and did not concede any additional runs.
It wasn’t good even in the 5th inning. The first batter, Jang Seung-hyun, was induced to ground the second baseman, but he allowed a walk to Heo Kyung-min, causing a crisis. Afterwards, he dedicated an RBI triple to Jung Su-bin, who split the middle right, and Kim Jae-ho’s second baseman grounder hit the ground ball, even Sue-bin dug into the home and took the third run of the day.
The crisis continued. Lohas, Yang Seok-hwan, and Kim Jae-hwan walked consecutively and reached the bases with 2 outs, and Ahn Jae-seok allowed an RBI and a right-handed hit. It was comforting that the follow-up hitter, Kim In-tae, was tied with a ground ball to the first baseman and no additional runs were allowed.
Even in the top of the 6th inning, Kim Seo-hyun, who was on the mound, committed a four-ball to lead batter Jang Seung-hyun. Heo Kyung-min then struck out, but gave up a wild throw and a walk and was driven to 1st and 2nd base. Afterwards, he treated Park Gye-beom as a ground ball to the third baseman and passed the ball to left-hander Lee Choong-ho. Lee Choong-ho did not concede to the successor runners, and Kim Seo-hyun’s earned run did not increase. The final result was 2.2 innings, 3 hits, 8 walks, 2 strikeouts and 4 runs.
Kim Seo-hyun, who was nominated by Hanwha as the first overall in the first round in 2023, is a rookie pitcher who is attracting a lot of attention with her fastball with a maximum velocity of 160 km. Having shown off his presence in the bullpen at the beginning of this season, he took time to readjust in the second team, revealing his weaknesses in the last minute of the first half. Prior to this game, his first team performance was 18 games (17.2 innings) played, 1 save, 23 strikeouts, 18 strikeouts, and an average ERA of 5.60.꽁머니사이트
Afterwards, Kim Seo-hyun, who was receiving starting classes in the Futures (2nd division) league according to the will of Hanwha coach Choi Won-ho, was originally scheduled to pitch as a starter against Suwon KT Wiz on the 10th, but was canceled due to rain and was unable to climb the mound. Instead, Han Seung-hyeok (2 innings, 4 earned runs) and Lee Tae-yang (1 inning, 2 runs, 0 earned runs) followed in the bullpen, but I had to confirm that I still had not solved the homework of stabilizing the ball.
As Hanwha, which fell into sluggishness in the second half, Kim Seo-hyun’s rebound is desperately needed. Hanwha, who lost 4-11 in the match, fell into a 5-game losing streak and fell to 9th place. One of the reasons is the lack of starting staff. The starting lineup, which consisted of Felix Pena, Ricardo Sanchez, Moon Dong-ju, and Han Seung-hyuk, was competitive even until the end of the first half, but now the sense of stability has declined. More than anyone else, we are waiting for Seohyun Kim’s performance.