The Hanwha Eagles in professional baseball surged to 1st place thanks to 'Daejeon Prince' Moon Dong-ju's outstanding performance. Adding to the excitement, substitute foreign hitter Luis Liberato's multi-hit effort contributed to a satisfying comeback victory.

Under the leadership of manager Kim Kyung-moon, Hanwha decorated their away game against the Samsung Lions on the 26th at Daegu Samsung Lions Park with a 3-1 comeback victory.

Starting pitcher Moon Dong-ju earned his 6th win of the season (2 losses) with an impressive performance of 5⅔ innings, allowing 5 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, and 1 earned run. He became the winning pitcher after 37 days and 3 games since the NC game in Ulsan on the 20th of last month.

In the meantime, he was removed from the first-team roster for three weeks for rest and struggled in previous games, but he triumphed by shutting down Samsung's powerful lineup that day. Despite facing crises in the 1st and 2nd innings, Moon Dong-ju remained steady, using a fastball that peaked at 158 km/h and averaged 152 km/h while also utilizing 43 fastballs, 19 forkballs, 14 curveballs, and 12 sliders to set the stage for victory.

With Moon Dong-ju's victory, Hanwha will have Ryu Hyun-jin returning from a muscle injury this weekend against SSG. The existing starters, Cody Ponce, Ryan Weiss, Eom Sang-baek, Moon Dong-ju, and Ryu Hyun-jin will form a complete starting rotation. Although he has been injured, Ryu Hyun-jin is a veteran who performs well when healthy, but Moon Dong-ju's victory on that day added wings to Hanwha's 1st place run.

Following Moon Dong-ju, the bullpen consisting of Park Sang-won (1 inning), Han Seung-hyeok (1 inning), and Kim Seo-hyeon (1⅓ innings) collaborated for 3⅓ innings with no runs, preserving Moon Dong-ju's victory. In the 7th inning with 2 outs and the bases loaded, a splendid defensive catch by second baseman Lee Do-yoon stopped a game-changing hit from Samsung's Lewin Diaz.

The batting lineup was held to just 1 hit without scoring against Samsung's new foreign pitcher, Herson Garabito, until the 5th inning but succeeded in attacking the bullpen starting from the 6th. After Ha Ju-suk's hit and Lee Jin-young's walk created two outs with runners on first and second base, Liberato connected a fastball that came in high outside from Samsung's left-hander Bae Chan-seung into a timely hit to left field. Adding to Samsung's left fielder Gu Ja-wook's error allowed the runner on first base to score and flip the game to 2-1.

In the 8th inning, a decisive timely hit from Lee Jin-young found its way down the right field line with 2 outs and a runner on second base. Then, Liberato followed it up with a double that dropped to the right of the right fielder, continuing the momentum. Although no additional runs were scored, Liberato continued his rapid adjustment with 2 hits, 1 RBI in 4 at-bats, including a double.

After avenging the previous day's (25th) 2-7 loss to Samsung, Hanwha marked their season record at 44 wins, 30 losses, and 1 tie (winning percentage .595), maintaining 1st place for the 12th day since the 15th. They are 1 game ahead of 2nd place LG (43 wins, 31 losses, 2 ties, winning percentage .581), who came from behind to win 4-3 against Suwon KT on the same day.

After the game, Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon noted, "It was a game where Moon Dong-ju did his part as a starting pitcher. The batting lineup also showed concentration centering around Liberato. It wasn't an easy game, but I want to commend all the players who achieved this comeback victory."

Hanwha will play a weekend three-game series against SSG starting on the 27th at Incheon SSG Landers Field. The starting pitcher on the first day of the series will be Eom Sang-baek. Moon Seung-won will start for SSG.

[OSEN]