"We're trailing by five points" — all winning horses mobilized! Why Hanwha? "Although it's said to be raining in Busan today (17th), the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation is in Daejeon [Daejeon Field]."

*This content was translated by AI.

In a situation where they were trailing 1-5, Hanwha Eagles activated their winning lineup. Jung Woo-ju, Kim Jong-soo, and newly appointed closer Jack Cushing all took the mound. Why did this happen?

On the 16th, at Daejeon Hanwha Life Eagles Park, where the third game of the season between Hanwha and Samsung Lions was held, Hanwha, trailing 0-3, scored one run in the bottom of the sixth inning to close the gap, but surrendered two runs in the top of the seventh, widening the deficit to 1-5. However, in the top of the eighth inning, Hanwha's setup man Jung Woo-joo entered the game.

It was puzzling. Although the pitcher had rested the previous day, he had appeared on the 14th and thrown 15 pitches over one inning in a tense situation, with a road trip against the Busan Lotte Giants scheduled to begin on the 17th. There was no need to expend the reliable relief pitcher.

He threw 19 pitches, recorded two outs, allowed two hits and one run, and then with two outs and a runner on first, Hanwha called in another reliable reliever, Kim Jong-soo.

It was the same as Jung Woo-joo. He threw 19 pitches on the 14th and took a day off on the 15th, but he could not ignore the upcoming schedule. Fortunately, Kim Jong-soo struck out Ryu Ji-hyeok on three pitches and finished the inning without allowing any additional runs.

In the ninth inning, Jong-soo Kim took the mound and retired Min-ho Kang on a four-pitch infield ground ball before exiting. He was followed by Cushing, who was named the temporary closer due to relief pitcher Seo-hyun Kim's struggles. Cushing, originally signed as a temporary replacement foreign pitcher following the injury of Owen White, appeared poised to fill a spot in the starting rotation, but manager Kyung-moon Kim indicated his intention to use him as a closer, leading to Cushing's KBO League debut on this day.

It is not common to bring in a relief pitcher in a game that is already tilted. While pitchers may appear to maintain their throwing rhythm on days following a rest day, Hanwha is scheduled to travel to Busan starting on the 17th for a three-game series against Lotte.

There is one reason that lends some credibility to the situation. On the 17th, rain is expected to fall near Sajik-dong, Dongnae-gu, Busan, where Hanwha will play a match, and the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation has issued a warning. The rain is expected to begin in the late afternoon and continue until the following morning. The predicted rainfall is 3 to 4 mm per hour, making it highly likely that the game will be canceled due to weather conditions.

However, it is a well-known fact that the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation's forecasts are often highly inaccurate. Even if it rains, the rain might stop, or the rainfall may be insufficient, allowing the game to proceed. While checking the pitcher's feel is meaningful, the decision can only be viewed as one that excluded the possibility of the game proceeding as scheduled on the 17th. If the game proceeds as planned on the 17th and the situation remains as it is, moving into the later innings will inevitably require deploying the designated closer. While pitching on two consecutive days is common, the thought "if the designated closer had not been used the previous day" will naturally arise.

With Wilkel Hernandez already starting on the 15th and Wang Yenching on the 16th, both having been moved up by a day after only four days of rest, and with Kim Seo-hyun stepping aside from the closer role to make way for a temporary foreign pitcher as the interim closer, the pitching staff management has become completely entangled. Fans, too, could not help but express further skepticism about the unexpected bullpen deployment on this day.

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*This content was translated by AI.