'Why on earth' — only 78 pitches through 8 innings, a perfect game within reach, yet he didn't make it to the 9th. The reason was there. The manager said, "From start to finish... Congratulations."

*This content was translated by AI.

Doosan Bears surged to a four-game winning streak, led by Wes Benjamin's (33) scoreless performance over eight innings.

On the 21st, Doosan defeated the NC Dinos 1-0 in a regular-season home game at Seoul Jamsil Baseball Stadium in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League.

With this victory, Doosan improved to 22 wins, 1 tie, and 22 losses, finally reaching a .500 winning percentage. The team has now won four consecutive games.

Doosan now sits in a tie for fourth place alongside the SSG Landers and KIA Tigers (both 22-1-22). They trail third-place KT Wiz by 3.5 games and first-place Samsung Lions by 4.5 games.

In contrast, NC fell to last place with a three-game losing streak, recording 18 wins, 1 tie, and 25 losses.

Today, Doosan secured its first win of the season as Benjamin, who had just signed an extension, pitched eight innings (78 total pitches), allowing one walk, one hit-by-pitch, and striking out one batter without surrendering a run.

Prior to this game, Doosan signed an extension with Benjamin.

A Doosan official stated, "We signed Benjamin to a six-week extension from the 20th until July 1st for a total of $50,000 (approximately 75 million won)."

Doosan had previously signed Benjamin to a six-week contract on April 7 as a replacement foreign player for Chris Flexen, who was injured.

Since joining Doosan, Benjamin has delivered standout performances. Through today's game, he has appeared in six games with a record of 1 win and 3 losses, an ERA of 3.15. Over 34⅓ innings, he allowed 43 hits (including one home run), issued nine walks, recorded 27 strikeouts, and gave up 15 runs (12 earned). His WHIP stands at 1.51, and his batting average against is 0.316. He has thrown three quality starts (six innings or more with three or fewer earned runs).

Benjamin first connected with the KBO League when he joined the KT Wiz in the 2022 season. He has yet to record a shutout or even a complete game victory in the KBO League. Unfortunately, after pitching eight innings today, he handed the mound over, postponing a shutout to another day.

After the win, Doosan manager Kim Won-hyeong, the "winning manager," praised Benjamin: "Benjamin displayed veteran-level game management and pitched excellently from start to finish. Congratulations on securing his first win with Doosan," and offered his applause.

He continued, "I also want to commend the solid defense of the position players who supported Benjamin. Shortstop Park Chan-ho and first baseman Kang Seung-ho repeatedly turned the opponents' hard-hit balls into outs, increasing the number of outs." Manager Kim added, "In the first inning, Son Ah-seop, a veteran, demonstrated clutch ability in a scoring opportunity created by Park Chan-ho's double. In the ninth inning, closer Lee Young-ha pitched effectively with powerful stuff."

Benjamin's total pitch count through the eighth inning was 78. As a starter, he had plenty of room to continue. However, the Doosan bench made the bold decision to limit him to eight innings.

There was a reason. It was a decision reached after consultation between Benjamin and the coaching staff. After the game, Benjamin told reporters regarding his decision to pitch only through the eighth inning: "I wanted to pitch more. However, after discussing with the coaching staff, I would have said I'd go up if the score difference had been larger. But I decided it was more important to win the game than to pursue my personal record, so I trusted Lee Young-ha, who was coming up next."

He added, "(If I had gone into the ninth) I felt confident I could hold them off. And I did want to keep pitching. However, NC has many excellent players in their top of the lineup. If I made even a small mistake, it could have cost us the entire game. That's why I only pitched through the eighth inning."

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*This content was translated by AI.