'Wow,' Hanwha's lucky ball finally ranked No. 1 in foreign batting average, 'super jackpot,' → It was 'a stroke of God' that eventually sang it again

*This content was translated by AI.

It was a great move for the Hanwha Eagles to recruit him again. Wearing an orange uniform again, he finally ranked No. 1 in batting average among foreign batters. Even if the scope is expanded to the entire KBO league, it is an excellent performance in third place. This is the story of Jonathan Peraza (28), a foreign outfielder of the Hanwha Eagles.

Hanwha won 11-6 against Doosan in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season away game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 3rd.

Hanwha has won three games and lost three games this season, with a winning percentage of 50%. The team ranks fifth alone in the league. Hanwha won two consecutive games against the Kiwoom Heroes on April 28 and 29. The atmosphere seemed to calm down after losing three consecutive home games during the week with KT Wiz, but the victory succeeded in rebounding. Now, Hanwha will try to win the Winning Series on the 4th while throwing out Wang Yancheng.

Peraza started as the second batter and right fielder on the day, and played in five at-bats, including one home run, with two hits, three RBIs, one run and one walk.

Peraza, who grounded out to second base in the first inning, walked in the second inning to get on base. White rice was in the fourth inning. With Doosan pitcher changing from Yang Jae-hoon to third pitcher Park Shin-ji, Oh Jae-won drew a straight walk after one out. Peraza then took his third at-bat. Peraza boldly targeted Park Shin-ji's first pitch fastball (147 kilometers) across the high zone and drew a two-run arch with a distance of 120.6 meters. Peraza's first home run of the season. The angle of launch was 27.5 degrees, and the speed of hitting was 160.7 kilometers. The score widened from 4-0 to 6-0.

In the sixth inning, he hit a heavy hit to complete the multi-hit and third-base game. In the end, with Peraza's strong performance, Hanwha was able to escape from the swamp of three consecutive losses.

After the match, Peraza said, "I'm happy to win a difficult game. The team was a little bit of a bad pace, but we were able to win as a team," he said.

"I'm so happy that my first home run is finally here. However, I'm more happy that the team won," he said of the situation at the time of the home run, adding, "I was aiming because I thought I would play with a fastball because the fast runner (Oh Jae-won) was out. The fastball came in just in time, leading to good results," he reflected.

Finally, he looked around and expressed his gratitude, saying, "I think the recent good batting feeling is the result of hard work with coaches, power analysis teams, and trainer coaches."

Peraza played for Hanwha in the 2024 season and played in 122 games with a batting average of 0.275 with 24 home runs and 70 RBIs. In the 2025 season, he left Hanwha and played for the minor league Triple-A club under the San Diego Padres. He played in 138 games with a batting average of 0.307 and 19 home runs.

And ahead of this season, Peraza wore the Hanwha uniform again. Competition for recruitment with the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team took place, but in the end, the final winner was Hanwha. At the time of re-recruitment of Peraza, the Hanwha team observed him and confirmed his defensive ability and quality line drive batting production capacity. "We succeeded in recruiting after competing with a number of clubs, including NPB clubs," he said.

"With the recruitment of Peraza, we are looking forward to synergy strengthening the lineup with Chae Eun-sung, Noh Si-hwan, Kang Baek-ho and Moon Hyun-bin," he added, expressing expectations. And it seems to eventually become a divine move. Right now, Peraza has played in six games this season, batting average of 0.462 (12 hits in 26 at-bats), two doubles, five RBIs, seven runs, one stolen base (0 failure), four strikeouts on five walks, a slugging percentage of 0.654, an on-base percentage of 0.548, an on-base percentage of 1.202 and a scoring average of 0.333. Currently, he is ranked first in the batting average among foreign batters in the KBO and third in the overall batting average in the league.

What kind of performance will Peraza achieve with his momentum early this season. Hanwha fans' expectations are rising.

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*This content was translated by AI.