It feels unbelievable that just the other day they fell to 10th place, yet now they have experienced an astonishing V-shaped turnaround. The Hanwha Eagles have soared from 10th to 1st place in just 26 days. This marks the first time in 18 years that a team has climbed to 1st place after playing 30 games since the season opened.
Hanwha won their home game against the Samsung Lions in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at Daejeon Hanwha Life Eagles Park on the 5th, winning 3-1.
Starting pitcher Ryan Weiss dominated the Samsung lineup, allowing 3 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, striking out 5, and giving up 1 run in 7 innings, earning his 5th win of the season (1 loss). The only run he allowed was a solo home run to Lee Seong-kyu in the 6th. He threw 107 pitches until the 7th inning, reaching a maximum speed of 157 km/h, throwing an average of 152 km/h, with 50 fastballs, 36 sliders, 15 curves, and 6 change-ups.
Following Weiss, the bullpen also shone. In the 8th inning, Park Sang-won and in the 9th inning, Kim Seo-hyun each pitched 1 inning, allowing only 1 hit and no runs, preserving the lead. Park Sang-won earned his 5th hold of the season, while Kim Seo-hyun earned his 11th save.
In the batting lineup, Moon Hyun-bin swung a hot bat, hitting 2 for 4 with a solo home run in the 1st inning and 1 RBI. The previous day (the 4th), after reaching first base on a hit by pitch in the 4th inning against the KIA in Gwangju, he was put out by a surprise pick-off attempt by the opposing catcher Kim Tae-goon, leading to his substitution. However, he remained in the starting lineup as the 3rd batter in left field and exploded with a home run from his very first at-bat in the 1st inning.
He hit a solo home run on a high cutter at 140 km/h from Samsung's right-handed starter Choi Won-tae in the 6th pitch, barely clearing the left field fence. The home run traveled 105 meters with a speed of 151.7 km/h and an angle of 35.5 degrees, marking his 5th home run of the season. In the 8th inning, Moon Hyun-bin also reached with a single to left-center with no outs, setting up an opportunity for an additional score.
As a result, Hanwha has achieved a 7-game winning streak since the game against KT in Daejeon on the 26th of last month, amassing an incredible 18 wins in their last 21 games, resulting in a season record of 22 wins and 13 losses (winning percentage .629) with a +9 run differential. They surged to a tie for 1st place alongside LG, who lost to Doosan by a score of 2-5 that day.
Just on the 9th of last month, Hanwha was at the bottom of the standings in 10th place with a record of 5 wins and 10 losses (winning percentage .333). However, starting with their victory against Doosan at Jamsil that day, they rebounded dramatically with an 18-3 record (winning percentage .857) over the last 21 games, elevating their rank from 10th to 1st place in just 26 days. They achieved an 8-game winning streak, moving up to 9th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 3rd, and 2nd place before temporarily dropping to 5th due to 2 losses but then climbing back to 4th, 3rd, and finally 1st. During this period, they passed through every rank once except for 8th. Overall for the season, they started tied for 1st following their opening game victory, then dropped to 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and finally fell to 10th, but in just 26 days, they have created a V-shaped comeback graph all the way to 1st.
Among the 18 wins during this period, 17 were achieved by their starting pitchers. Hanwha has demonstrated strong pitching, winning 5 games by a margin of 1 run and 5 by a margin of 2 runs, resulting in a total of 10 games decided by 2 runs or less. The closer Kim Seo-hyun, along with Han Seung-hyuk and Park Sang-won, has been reliably handling the 7th and 8th innings to ensure winning baseball. The batting lineup has also revived, ranking 2nd in team batting average (.277) and 3rd in OPS (.781) during this period. Notable performances include No Si-hwan (.312) with 7 home runs, Lee Jin-young (.360), Moon Hyun-bin (.333), Esteban Florial (.329), and Chae Eun-sung (.321), all hitting over .300.
Since the opening, it has been 18 years since Hanwha took the lead in the standings after more than 30 games, the last being on June 2, 2007, when they had a record of 24 wins, 20 losses, and 1 tie for a winning percentage of .545. They have climbed to 1st place for the first time in an astounding 6,547 days, initiating a serious chase for the top spot.
The Hanwha players have now started to pay attention to the rankings. After the game, Weiss remarked on their newfound tie for 1st place, saying, "I don't want to be tied for 1st. We want to be in sole possession of 1st place," and added, "If batters do their part and pitchers do theirs, I believe we can continue to play well. We will keep playing winning baseball going forward."
Moon Hyun-bin also stated, "I feel good that the team is winning continuously, so I don't get physically exhausted. The overall team atmosphere feels like even if we're losing, we won't lose. I feel like the pitchers will hold up, and the batters will score the runs," adding, "I've been checking the standings more often lately. I confirm whether the teams we're competing against won or lost."
Riding this momentum, Hanwha will start veteran pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin in their game against Samsung on the 6th, looking for their second 8-game winning streak of the season. Samsung, who is on a 3-game losing streak, will respond with their homegrown ace, Won Tae-in.
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