The Hanwha Eagles announced Ryu Hyun-jin as the starting pitcher for the opening game at the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO Media Day held at Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul on Tuesday. The Eagles will meet the LG Twins, who became the defending champion. LG will face off with Detrick Ens, a new foreign pitcher.
Ryu returned to Korea on June 21 with the best treatment in the KBO League, which amounts to 17 billion won (17 million U.S. dollars) for eight years. He returned to the Major League last year after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery (heel ligament reconstruction surgery) two years ago, and most people expected that he would be able to play in the Major League again this year, but the Hanwha Eagles changed his mind. He joined the spring camp late but completed the schedule without any problems, and smoothly increased the number of innings pitched by allowing nine hits, nine strikeouts, and three runs in two games and nine innings in exhibition games. Of the three points lost, two came from defense mistakes that were not recorded as errors. There was no flaw in his pitching.
Ryu's last KBO league game was against the Nexen Heroes (currently the Kiwoom Heroes) on Oct. 4, 2012. For Ryu, the day remains when he failed to win 10 games in Korea for seven consecutive years.
Ryu had 18 wins, six losses, one save and an earned run average of 2.23 in 30 games in 2006, when he monopolized the Rookie of the Year and MVP. Through 2011, he achieved double-digit wins for six consecutive years, displaying stellar performance. However, in 2012, he had only nine wins in 26 games. The record of double-digit wins for seven consecutive years was set in the final game. Ryu desperately wanted this record, too. He pitched in as many as 10 innings in the game against the Nexen Heroes on October 4. He had four hits (one homer) and struck out 12 and allowed one run. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. One solo shot hit by Kang knocked out the record. Yeom Kyung-yeop was the coach of the Nexen Heroes at the time.
Ryu will face LG both in his debut and return matches. April 12, 2006, 6,555 days before his debut, marked the beginning of the "Korean Monster" legend. A former Hanwha high school graduate, Ryu dominated the game with three hits, one walk, 10 strikeouts and no runs during seven ⅓ innings, securing his debut win. He also won the Rookie of the Year and the MVP of the year with 18 wins.
Throughout his KBO career, Ryu has been strong against LG. He has 22 wins and eight losses with a 2.36 ERA in 35 games. Among 98 wins, LG had the highest number of wins. However, LG says it is different from then. After Ryu returned to the Hanwha Eagles, Oh Ji-hwan, the team captain, had been imagining a scenario in which he would "lose to Ryu but not lose to him." He has confidence that he can win the game even if he is tied to Ryu without a point in seven innings. 토토사이트
Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop also said, "Just because we are dealing with Ryu, we will not change the composition of the team that we have maintained." LG's main lineup consists mostly of left-handed hitters. Seven of them are left-handed hitters, including Park Hae-min, a table setter for Kim Hyun-soo, No. 5 Oh Ji-hwan, No. 6 Moon Bo-kyung, No. 8 Moon Sung-joo and No. 9 Shin Min-jae. Austin Dean, the fourth batter, and Park Dong-won, the seventh batter, are playing valuable right-handed hitters.
LG will start the season with high expectations for the winner of the previous year, and Hanwha will return Ryu Hyun-jin. The opening match of Jamsil Baseball Organization between LG and Hanwha received keen attention from baseball fans, as the tickets for the opening match ended up being pre-booked. The biggest big match of the opening match is coming up.