26 hits and 10 runs in two days. The Doosan Bears were unstoppable against a foreign one-two punch with a fastball that reached 150 kilometers per hour. But they were cooled by the timely and clever pitching of Ha Young-min (29, Kiwoom Heroes).
Young-min Ha pitched 7 1/3 innings of three-hit ball with one walk, two strikeouts and two strikeouts to earn his fifth win of the season and third win of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League regular-season home opener against the Doosan Bears on Saturday at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul (13,184 total fans).
Behind a strong pitching performance from Ha Young-min and a batting lineup that pounded out 12 hits in the first and second innings, Kiwoom knocked off the South Korean right-handed ace and beat Doosan 8-2. With the win, Kiwoom snapped a four-game losing streak and closed to within half a game of ninth-place KT Wiz with 27 wins and 41 losses. In the process, Kiwoom snapped a nine-game home losing streak against Doosan that dates back to June 25, 2023.
The top of the first inning was the biggest threat. After giving up a walk to Heo Kyung-min and a single to Yang Ji, Ha gave up a double to right to Yang Seok-hwan. However, Kang Seung-ho’s bunt was caught and thrown to first base, followed by a flawless artistic pitching performance.
He retired the bottom of the order of Jeon Min-jae, Park Joon-young, and Cho Sun-sung on five pitches in the second inning, and against the top of the order in the third, he got Henry Ramos to fly out to center field on six pitches and Heo Kyung-min and Yang Yang-ji to ground out to second base on two pitches each. That extended his hitting streak to 13 straight batters until an error by Kim Hye-sung in the top of the sixth inning plated Ramos, the leadoff hitter.
They also got some defensive help. In the top of the sixth, shortstop Kim Tae-jin fielded Heo Kyung-min’s line drive with Kim Hye-sung at second base, and in the seventh, center fielder Lee Yong-kyu made a jumping catch on Kang Seung-ho’s line drive. After giving up a double to Park Joon-young in the top of the eighth, he was replaced by Kim Sung-min and left the mound. Kim Sung-min then got out of the inning without allowing a run, giving Ha the win.
After the game, Kiwoom head coach Hong Won-ki said, “Starting pitcher Ha Young-min pitched smartly, with good control of his pitches to take away the timing of the opposing 카지노 hitters. He was on the mound for more than seven innings and fulfilled his role perfectly.”
“After the seventh inning, the coach told me to pitch a complete game. I didn’t get a complete game because I got hit by a pitch, but it’s more important that the team won,” said Ha.
After scoring 10 runs on 26 hits against Kiwoom’s foreign one-two punch of Ariel Hurtado and Enmanuel Jesus over the previous two days, Doosan had a different look against Ha Young-min. In seven and a third innings, Ha dominated the Doosan lineup, throwing 85 pitches, including 40 fastballs that topped out at 148 mph, 18 sliders, 14 forks, 12 curves, and one changeup. The well-placed fastball took away the timing of the Doosan hitters.
“Before the game, Coach Lee Seung-ho gave us a strategy to get up in the count quickly with our fastballs and then compete with our changeup,” said Ha Young-min. In the bullpen, Coach Ma Jung-gil told me that 에볼루션 바카라사이트 my fastball was very good and gave me confidence,” said Ha.
The pitching performance marked the first time he pitched more than seven innings since his debut in 2014. Ha Young-min, a graduate of Gwangju Suchangcho, Jinjungjo, and Jinjunggo, joined Nexen (now Kiwoom) with the fourth pick in the second round of the 2014 KBO First-Year Player Draft. In his debut season, he pitched 6⅓ innings and allowed three runs against Mokdong SK (now SSG) on June 20, 2014, which was the most innings pitched in a single game. However, with his 7⅓ innings that day, he not only set a new career high for innings pitched in a single game, but also earned his first Quality Start Plus (7+ innings pitched and 3 earned runs or less).
“I’ve always wanted to pitch a lot of innings as a starter, and I felt bad that I didn’t,” said Ha. Today, I think I got rid of that feeling by pitching more than seven innings for the first time,” Ha said, adding, “It’s a new feeling. It’s always in the back of my mind to pitch more than six innings as a starter. I want to show more of this in the future,” he concluded.