At the end of the first half, when a fierce ranking battle took place, the hottest teams were the Doosan Bears and the Hanwha Eagles. The two teams that bottomed out last year shook the league.
Most field baseball players and 메이저사이트 experts saw Doosan Hanwha as a lower power. It seemed possible to advance to the mid-range and escape the last place only with great luck.
Lee Seung-yeop, who has no experience as a coach, has made a fresh start. Doosan seemed to need time to reorganize the team. Hanwha, which has been in last place for three consecutive years, was a strong candidate for last place again this year.
However, an unexpected rebound occurred.
Doosan in July is a power that threatens the ‘two-top’ LG Twins and SSG Landers. It widened the gap with the fourth-place NC Dinos by 2.5 games and followed second-place SSG by four games.
Hanwha won two consecutive games against LG SSG, ranked first and second, and finished the first half in eighth place. It narrowed the gap with fifth-place Lotte Giants to 2.5 games.
It went as expected for a while after the opening. Doosan, which had a hard time maintaining a winning rate of around 50% from April to May, recorded 10 wins and 14 losses and a winning rate of .417 in June. The main players were sidelined one after another due to injuries. Even foreign players were sluggish. It became a team with no particular advantages.
Hanwha has lost by one point in three consecutive games since the opening game. In April, 6 wins, 1 draw, and 17 losses, with a winning rate of .261. It was grim. Opening day starter Birch Smith threw 60 pitches and left, and Brian O’Gredy, who was brought in as the fourth batter, was weaker than expected.
These difficulties were part of the process of making a leap forward.
Doosan, which had been slowing down, jumped up with nine consecutive wins. Doosan was invincible from the match against Lotte Giants on July 1 to the match against SSG on July 12. In nine games, the team’s batting average was .299, and the ERA was 1.76. The pitching and hitting balance was perfectly matched. In particular, the bullpen was strong. During his winning streak, he made six saves with three relief wins and 12 holds. I didn’t think I would lose no matter which team I met.
Since May, 28 wins, 3 draws, 23 losses, and a winning rate of .549. Hanwha’s rise was not temporary. Since May, it has ranked third after LG and SSG. From late June to early July, he won eight consecutive games and completely threw away the last place.
Last year, Doosan and Hanwha ranked 9th to 10th side by side. It went down to the bottom. It was necessary to reform the team atmosphere. The two novice coaches are playing the necessary roles for the team. Coach Lee is a complete novice head coach with no coaching experience. It dispelled concerns over lack of experience and put Doosan on track.
Choi has led the team in more than 100 games as an acting coach since June 2020, but the official coach is completely different. Hanwha replaced Carlos Subero on May 12 and raised Choi, who was in charge of the Futures team, to the first division.
This season, Hanwha is divided into before Choi Won-ho and after Choi Won-ho. Before Choi Won-ho, he recorded 10 wins, 1 draw, 19 losses, and a winning rate of .345, and after Choi Won-ho, he recorded 23 wins, 1 draw, 21 losses, and .524.
In the second half, Doosan aims to reorganize the two-top system, and Hanwha aims to enter the mid-range. The two novice coaches are holding the sword of competition for rankings in the second half.