One of the hottest hitters right now is Hanwha Eagles catcher Choi Jae-hoon. After struggling to make an impact in the early part of the season, his hitting has skyrocketed recently. In seven games from 28 June against KT Wiz to 8 July against SSG Landers, Choi went 22-for-27 with 12 RBIs and a 5-for-4 slugging percentage.

The hot hitting continued. On the final day of the three-game weekend series against SSG on the 9th, he started at 5-catcher and hit his first home run of the season. He led off the bottom of the fourth inning and lined a 114-kilometre-per-hour curveball from opposing starter Oh Won-seok. It was his first home run in 67 games and 239 at-bats this season. Choi’s home run gave Hanwha a 2-0 lead.

Hanwha, which had lost two straight games, dominated SSG in the two-hitter and cruised to a 7-0 victory.

Hanwha took the lead in the bottom of the third inning. The leadoff batter, No. 9 Lee Do-yoon, drew a full-count walk. With the bases loaded, No. 1 Lee Jin-young hit a double to the left-centre wall, bringing home Lee Do-yoon.

Last year, Lee went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in six at-bats against Oh Won-seok. In his first at-bat this year

Sun was different.

Lee’s aggressive infield play led to the extra run. With the bases loaded, Lee tagged up on Kim Tae-yeon’s short fly to right field and advanced to third. SSG right fielder Han Yoo-seom made a quick throw to third, but Lee was quick on his feet. He was able to make the safe catch at third.

On the next at-bat, it was official. No. 3 Roh Si-hwan hit a sacrifice fly to centre field. The runner at third, Lee Jin-young, came home with time to spare.

When the extra run was needed, Choi Jae-hoon came through with a single. In the bottom of the sixth inning, with the score 3-0, Chae Eun-sung hit a one-run home run. No. 3 Roh Si-hwan, No. 4 Chae Eun-sung, and No. 5 Choi Jae-hoon all had hits. In the bottom of the seventh, Kim In-hwan, a pinch-hitter, hit his fifth home run of the season 토토 가입머니.

Hanwha starter Felix Peña pitched seven innings of three-hit shutout ball to earn his seventh win of the season.

He lowered his ERA to 2.83 in the two-run range. Peña has 11 quality starts (6+ innings pitched, 3 earned runs or less) in his last 12 starts.