Hanwha right-hander Lee Tae-yang, 33, couldn’t smile after his first win in a month. The disappointment of not being able to pitch a long inning due to five consecutive strikeouts prevented him from smiling.

The Hanwha Eagles won 6-2 in their 14th game of the season against the KT Wiz of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on April 18. The eighth-ranked Hanwha snapped a four-game losing streak after sweeping a doubleheader the day before, improving to 51 wins, six draws and 66 losses on the season.메이저사이트

The key to the victory was starter Lee Tae-yang. He tossed five innings of three-hit ball against No. 2 KT, giving up two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts while throwing 77 pitches to record his third win of the season in about a month after his last outing against the Changwon NC on March 16. Despite giving up two runs in the top of the second and a single to Kim Sang-soo in the fifth, the right-hander settled down to retire the side in order in the first, third, and fourth innings to end his team’s losing streak.

After the game, Lee said, “I didn’t get the win by myself. I’m grateful to my teammates because they gave me the right amount of runs and allowed me to pitch aggressively.”

The most disappointing inning of the day was the fifth. After giving up back-to-back singles to Bae Jae-dae and Shin Bong-ki, she was hit by a pitch with runners on first and second against Kim Sang-soo. Lee threw 28 pitches in the fifth inning alone and was relieved by Joo Hyun-sang in the sixth.

“We had a tough doubleheader yesterday, and we’re in the middle of a tough nine-game series, so I wanted to go the distance, but I gave up a walk in the fifth inning, so it’s too bad I couldn’t,” Lee said.

Still, since returning to his hometown club Hanwha in November last year for a four-year, 2.5 billion won deal, Lee has been an integral part of the Hanwha mound this year with a 3-1 record and 2.85 ERA in 46 games.

“I want to pitch more reliably, and I want to pitch to improve the team’s chances of winning more than I want to win for myself,” said Lee, showing off her team-first mentality.

With 21 games left until the end of the season, Lee said, “The 2023 season won’t come back, so next year’s season can be different depending on what kind of mindset we finish with. With that in mind, the entire squad is playing the remaining games with each game as important as the next,” he said, strengthening his resolve for the rest of the season.