Hanwha Eagles pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin will make his season debut against the LG Twins for the second consecutive year.
Ryu will start on the 25th against the LG Twins in the regular season of the '2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League', held at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
This is Ryu's first start of the season. He returned to Major League Baseball after signing a maximum 8-year, 17 billion won contract with Hanwha last year. His first start after returning to Korea after 12 years was against LG.
However, he faced a tough challenge. He started as the opening day pitcher on March 23 last year and collapsed with 3⅔ innings pitched, allowing 6 hits, 3 walks, and 5 earned runs (2 unearned runs), resulting in a loss.
Despite the opening day loss and struggling to improve his condition early in the season, Ryu played a key role as an ace in his first season back in Korea, appearing in 28 games with a record of 10 wins, 8 losses, 158⅓ innings pitched, and an earned run average of 3.87.
This year, he was excluded from the opening series starting rotation due to foreign pitchers KODI and Ryan Weiss, but he will take on the role of a native ace. He steps onto the mound to avoid repeating last year's nightmare after about a year. Hanwha recorded 1 win and 1 loss in the opening series against KT. In the spring training games, he pitched once, starting against Lotte on March 13, where he threw 4 innings, allowing 4 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, striking out 3, and giving up 2 earned runs.
The starting pitcher for LG against Ryu is Eliezer Hernandez. Hernandez joined last year as a replacement for Casey Kelly, recording a record of 3 wins, 2 losses, 1 save, and 1 hold over 11 regular season games with an earned run average of 4.02.
He shone brighter in the postseason than in the regular season. In all 5 games of the preliminary playoffs against KT, he pitched 7⅓ innings, allowing 5 hits, 3 walks, striking out 10, with 2 saves, and 1 hold, having an earned run average of 0. He successfully re-signed after his passionate pitching and will strengthen the LG starting rotation. LG will face Hanwha and Ryu after recording back-to-back wins with a perfect harmony of hitting and pitching in the opening two-game series against Lotte.
Meanwhile, the Lotte Giants, who suffered a two-game losing streak against LG in the opening series, will have new foreign pitcher Matt Davidson making his debut. The SSG Landers, after winning two consecutive games against Doosan in the opening series, will have Moon Seung-won starting.
In Daegu, NC Dinos and Samsung Lions will face off, with NC's Choi Sung-young and Samsung's Choi Won-tae starting. This will be Choi Won-tae's debut with Samsung after transferring to the team for 4 years and 7 billion won as a free agent last winter.
In Suwon, a starting matchup between Doosan Bears' Choi Won-jun and KT's Koh Young-pyo will take place. Choi Won-jun seized the opportunity due to an injury to native ace Kwak Bin. In Gwangju, a starting matchup between Kiwoom's Kim Yoon-ha and KIA's Adam Oller will be held.
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