"I will pitch at a comfortable timing" → But with a runner on second base, Kim Seo-hyun entered the game, and Hwang Jun-seo shed tears again as the inherited runner scored. [Jamsil]

*This content was translated by AI.

Although he allowed the leadoff batter to reach base in every inning, he seemed to catch his breath by inducing ground balls and recording strikeouts to get two outs. However, that was all the opportunity given to Hwang Jun-seo (26, Hanwha Eagles). Kim Seo-hyun (22) took the mound. And the result was runs allowed.

On the 23rd, Hwang Jun-seo started against LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League road game. He threw 44 pitches over 2⅔ innings, allowing 2 hits, 2 walks, and recording 2 strikeouts, while giving up 2 runs (1 earned run) before handing the ball to Kim Seo-hyun and exiting the game.

Hwang Jun-seo, who joined Hanwha as the first overall pick in the 2024 rookie draft, alternated between starting and relief roles over the past two seasons. He consistently struggled with stamina issues in the second half of the season, but ahead of this season, he successfully gained weight and added new pitches, raising expectations.

Moving between roles, he appeared in 4 games, pitched 8 innings, and recorded 1 loss, but posted an impressive ERA of 3.38. In particular, he became stronger in crisis situations, limiting the batting average against in scoring positions to just 0.083 (1 hit allowed in 12 at-bats).

Today, he got another chance as the starter. Misfortune struck from the first inning. Second baseman Hwang Young-mok made a diving stop on Park Hae-min's quick grounder, but the throw went to a position where the first baseman could not catch it. The runner advanced to second base. Following Moon Sung-ju's sacrifice bunt, Austin Dean's foul ball headed toward Hwang Jun-seo but hit his glove and rolled away, allowing the runner from third to score home. Although it was recorded as an unearned run, the situation was shaky from the early stages of the game. However, Hwang Jun-seo calmly induced a ground ball to the second baseman from Moon Bo-kyung and ended the inning with a double play.

In the 2nd inning, he started by giving a walk to the first batter, Oh Ji-hwan. However, it was clearly different from before. He induced a ground ball to the first baseman from Cheon Sung-ho, picking off the lead runner at second base. He threw a fastball in the strike zone to Park Dong-won, resulting in a swinging strikeout, and got Song Chan-ui out on a fly ball to center field.

It was regrettable that he allowed the first batter to reach base again in the 3rd inning. He gave a straight fastball walk to Shin Min-jae. He then induced a ground ball to the second baseman from Park Hae-min, retiring the lead runner. Although he could not prevent Park Hae-min's stolen base, he seemed to catch his breath by striking out Moon Sung-ju.

Suddenly, the pitching coach headed to the mound, opting for a pitching change. The second pitcher was Kim Seo-hyun.

After taking over the closer role, he was replaced by foreign pitcher Jack Cushing due to extreme poor performance. Manager Kim Kyung-moon (68) said he would help Kim Seo-hyun regain his confidence. In a pre-game interview with reporters on the 22nd, Manager Kim explained regarding the early use of Jung Woo-ju the previous day: "Our winning pitchers have been performing poorly lately, so we lost games we should have won and became a bit strained. Now, we will insert those players a bit earlier at a comfortable timing. Once they regain confidence, we will use them later." Regarding Kim Seo-hyun, he added: "(Jung) Woo-ju is the same. Once we judge that his confidence has fully returned, we will move him to the back."

However, something did not quite match the explanation. Hwang Jun-seo was navigating the crisis and finding stability, while for Kim Seo-hyun, a runner on second base in a scoring position was by no means a comfortable situation. In the game on the 21st, when starter Moon Dong-ju struggled early and allowed 4 runs, Kim Seo-hyun was inserted with two outs and runners on second. At that time, he finished the inning without allowing runs, but today was different.

Kim Seo-hyun could not engage in an aggressive battle against Austin Dean and ended up allowing a walk. He then gave up a hit that rolled down the right-field line to Moon Bo-kyung, allowing the inherited runner to score.

He then gave up a large hit to center field from Oh Ji-hwan, but Lee Won-seok chased it quickly and collided with Moon Hyun-bin, yet managed to catch the ball and barely avert the crisis.

Hwang Jun-seo was also replaced with runners left on base in the 5th inning with one out during his first appearance of the season. After Hwang Jun-seo pitched a scoreless inning, the following pitcher allowed a home run, increasing the runs allowed to 2. Although he had no earned runs today, Kim Seo-hyun gave up a hit with runners in scoring position, resulting in an earned run.

In the new inning, which should have been a comfortable situation, Kim Seo-hyun was not on the mound. In the 4th inning, Yonathan Ferraza and Noh Si-hwan hit home runs, scoring 3 runs to take a 3-2 lead. It seems they decided they needed to solidify the lead starting from the bottom of the 4th, so they inserted Jo Dong-wook.

The pitching change may be judged as a result, but the result was not good, and the process of the change was difficult to accept.

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*This content was translated by AI.