No fireworks, but plenty of ‘home run fireworks’. The Hanwha Eagles lit up the autumn sky with home runs in their final home game of the Golden Week, sweeping the NC Dinos.
Hanwha blasted four home runs in a 10-0 victory over NC at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on Sunday. After stopping Eric Peddy from reaching the 20-win and 200-strikeout milestones the day before, Hanwha showed off its late-season red-hot instincts by shutting down the foreign one-two punch of Tanner Tully.
The game was the fifth full house (12,000 seats) this season. Even though it was a holiday, the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) hadn’t announced the rest of the season’s schedule yet, so many fans thought it was the last home game of the season. Hanwha, whose parent company has the best pyrotechnics in the country, always puts on a fireworks show for fans at the last home game of the season, and there were quite a few inquiries leading up to the game about “fireworks”.
In the final home game of the season, there were no real fireworks, but four beautifully arched home runs lit up the fall sky.
The first home run came in the third inning. After walking Tanner in the first inning, Hanwha had runners on first and third with no outs in the bottom of the inning when Lee Jin-young walked and Choi In-ho singled. After Moon Hyun-bin drove in a run to make it 2-0, Nick Williams took a 142-kilometer-per-hour fastball for a three-run home run that traveled 125 meters. Eighth inning.
With the game in hand, the Hanwha bats came out firing. In the bottom of the fifth inning with a 5-0 lead, Moon Hyun-bin became the seventh high school rookie in history to reach 100 hits, and with two outs, Chae Eun-sung hit a 141-kilometer-per-hour fastball for a grand slam.
That was enough to make the Hanwha fans sing “I’m Happy,” but the players had no intention of stopping the home run fireworks show.
In the top of the seventh inning, Jung Woo-ram walked off the mound after becoming the first player in baseball history to play in 1,000 games. Lee Jin-young led off with a 137-kilometer per hour fork off Kim Tae-hyun for a 125-meter solo shot, and Chae Eun-sung followed with a 135-meter home run on a 146-kilometer per hour fastball off Kim Tae-hyun with a full count on first base to extend the lead to 10-0. The two home runs gave Chae her 22nd of the season.안전놀이터
On the mound, starter Felix Peña was solid, throwing six scoreless innings and 92 pitches. He mixed a fastball that reached 150 kilometers per hour with a slider and changeup to keep the NC bats in check. In his 1,000th game, Jung induced a grounder to Oh Young-soo at second base to get a clean, sunny out, drawing a huge ovation from the fans.
NC was stung by Tanner’s five-inning, seven-run outing. The offense couldn’t save the team from a five-hit slump, either. In particular, they failed to capitalize on a bases-loaded opportunity in the top of the eighth inning.
Leave a Reply