Professional baseball Samsung Lions foreign pitcher Denny Reyes (29) pitched perfectly until the 7th inning. He allowed his first hit in the 8th inning, breaking the perfect game, but it was impressive enough to look towards becoming the first perfect game in KBO League history, which is celebrating its 44th year this year.

Reyes made his start in the home game against the Hanwha Eagles in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Daegu Samsung Lions Park on the 6th, pitching 7 innings with 1 hit, no walks, 6 strikeouts, and no runs. Before allowing the lead-off hit to Moon Hyun-bin in the 8th inning, Reyes had a perfect game with 90 pitches over 7 innings. With Samsung's 10-0 victory, Reyes earned his 2nd win of the season and lowered his earned run average to 1.50.

He overwhelmed Hanwha, which had been in a severe slump early this season. Hanwha had erupted for 6 runs, including Moon Hyun-bin's consecutive home runs in the 8th and 9th innings the day before (5th) against Samsung, winning 7-6, leading to hopes of breaking the blockade, but fell silent again in front of Reyes.

Starting from the first inning, Reyes struck out Ahn Chi-hong with a changeup, began with a strikeout of Esteban Florial as a shortstop flyout, and struck out Kim Tae-yeon. Kim Tae-yeon had a full-count battle but swung and missed on Reyes' 6th pitch, which was a two-seam fastball on the outside.

In the 2nd inning, Moon Hyun-bin, who started as the 4th batter in his debut, attempted a bunt, but Reyes calmly fielded it and made an out with a throw to 1st base. He then got No Si-hwan to fly out to right field and handled Lee Jin-young with a ground ball to 3rd base, finishing the inning with just 10 pitches. In the 3rd inning, he struck out Chae Eun-seong with a two-seam fastball, forced Lee Jae-won to hit a ground ball to the pitcher, and got Shim Woo-jun out on a ground ball to 3rd base.

In the 4th inning, as the batting order cycled back, Reyes continued his dominance. He got Ahn Chi-hong to fly out to right field, Florial to hit a ground ball to 1st base, and struck out Kim Tae-yeon with three pitches. After taking a strike on the first pitch, Kim Tae-yeon swung and missed on the second and third pitches, which were low changeups. In the 5th, Reyes dealt with Moon Hyun-bin and No Si-hwan, getting them both to fly out to center field. Against Lee Jin-young, a pitch on the third ball hit the handle of the bat, resulting in a foul, avoiding a hit-by-pitch. Lee Jin-young, feeling pain in his hand, was substituted by Lim Jong-chan during the at-bat, and Reyes ended the inning by striking out looking with a cutter.

In the 6th inning, Reyes disposed of Chae Eun-seong with a fly out to center field, then induced Lee Jae-won into a ground ball to 3rd base. Samsung's 3rd baseman Kim Young-woong dove for a line drive, made a backhand catch, and accurately threw to 1st base. Although the slow-footed Lee Jae-won made a headfirst slide into 1st base, he was called out. The video review upheld the original call.

Reyes ended the 6th inning by getting the next batter, Shim Woo-jun, to fly out to right field, maintaining his perfect game through the 7th inning. He forced Ahn Chi-hong into a ground ball to shortstop, struck out Florial on a cutter with three pitches, and got Kim Tae-yeon to fly out to 2nd base. Although he had thrown 90 pitches through 7 innings, given the perfect game situation, he naturally returned to the mound in the 8th inning.

However, he allowed a hit to lead-off batter Moon Hyun-bin, breaking his perfect game. Moon Hyun-bin hit Reyes’ second pitch, a high cutter on the inside, to save his team from a perfect game disaster. Then, Kang Young-sik, the Samsung pitching coach, came up, and Reyes handed the ball over and left the mound. With a comfortable 5-0 lead and this being his second appearance since returning from injury, there was no need to push himself. His total pitch count was 92. He mixed his pitches evenly, including 29 fastballs topping out at 150 km/h, along with 15 cutters, 8 two-seam fastballs, 30 sweepers, and 10 changeups.

Last season, Reyes succeeded in re-signing with an 11-4 record and an earned run average of 3.81 over 26 games (144 innings). However, during the spring training camp in Okinawa, Japan, in February, he was not able to start the season rotation due to a slight stress fracture in his right ulna. Fortunately, the injury was not severe, and after pitching in a Futures League game, he returned to the first team in a match against Doosan on the 30th of last month, where he pitched 5 innings, allowing 3 hits (1 home run) with no walks, 5 strikeouts, and 2 earned runs to earn a win. After taking a day off on the 6th, he made a strong impression in this game, pitching perfectly until the 7th inning.

In the KBO League, there have been a total of 10 no-hitter games, but there has yet to be a perfect game. On April 2, 2022, during the season opener against NC in Changwon, Wilmer Font, who was with SSG, came closest to the record with a perfect game of 9 innings and 9 strikeouts, but the lineup failed to score a single point, preventing it from being an official record. To establish the requirements for a perfect game, one pitcher must be responsible from the start to finish of the game; in that instance, with the game still scoreless at 0-0, it went into the 10th innings of extra time, with Font throwing 104 pitches before handing the mound over to Kim Tae-hyung. He was satisfied with leaving an unrecognized record as the first perfect pitching of regular innings.

Meanwhile, along with Reyes’ stellar performance, Samsung's batting line also exploded, overwhelming Hanwha in both pitching and hitting. Lewin Diaz had a strong game with his 4th home run of the season, going 4-for-5 with 4 RBIs, while catcher Kang Min-ho, who worked with Reyes, also contributed with 2 hits, including a double, in 4 at-bats, 2 RBIs, and 1 walk. Kim Sung-yoon showed his presence with 2 hits in 4 at-bats, 1 RBI, 1 walk, and 1 stolen base. With the winning series against Hanwha, Samsung improved to 8 wins and 5 losses, maintaining 3rd place.

In contrast, Hanwha's starting pitcher Eom Sang-baek suffered his 2nd loss of the season, allowing 5 hits, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 3 earned runs in 3 innings. The first hit for Hanwha came from Moon Hyun-bin in the 7th inning, but the next batter, No Si-hwan, hit a ground ball for a double play at shortstop, and the game ended anticlimactically with 27 batters and only 1 hit, resulting in 27 outs. With a severe hitting slump, Hanwha fell to 4 wins and 9 losses, unable to rise from last place in 10th.

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