Samsung snapped a two-game losing streak and moved back within half a game of eighth-place Hanwha.
Samsung won a 3-1 home game against Hanwha in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League on Friday at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu.
Starter David Buchanan threw 109 pitches through the eighth inning, allowing one run on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts to earn his 12th win of the season and lower his ERA from 2.57 to 2.51.
After snapping a two-game losing streak, ninth-ranked Samseo improved to 59 points (78-1) and closed to within 0.5 games of eighth-ranked Hanwha (56-74-6). Hanwha ended a three-game winning streak. The two teams’ head-to-head record this season ended in an 8-8 tie.
Samsung starter Buchanan dominated the Hanwha bats, throwing a perfect game on 51 pitches through five innings. In the sixth inning, Buchanan’s perfect game was broken when Oh Sun-jin singled to left, and after Lee Jin-young walked, Moon Hyun-bin singled to left with runners on first and second.
However, he did not allow another run until the eighth inning. Buchanan, who induced Choi Jae-hoon to triple with one out in the seventh, showed his crisis management skills by striking out Choi In-ho with a changeup and getting Moon Hyun-bin to ground out to second with a cutter with runners on first and third in the eighth.
The Samsung bats also helped Buchanan. After taking a 1-0 lead in the second inning off Hanwha starter Kim Ki-jung on Lee Sung-gyu’s RBI single up the middle, Samsung added a run in the third on three hits by Ahn Ju-hyung, Koo Ja-uk and Jose Pirela.
In the fourth, leadoff hitter Kim Young-woong took a seven-pitch slider from Kim Ki-jung over the right field fence. It traveled 115 meters, his second home run of the season. 메이저사이트
After Buchanan, reliever Seung-hwan Oh closed out the game in the ninth to preserve the two-run lead. Oh earned his 29th save of the season and 399th save, one shy of becoming the first KBO player to reach 400 career saves.
Hanwha starter Kim Ki-jung fell to 2-1 on the season after allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits (one home run) with four walks and four strikeouts in four innings. Oh Sun-jin had a two-hit multi-hit game.