The forgotten KT Wiz killer is back. Even in the first confrontation of the 2023 season, he showed perfect pitching and tied up the opponent’s batting line.
Felix Pena (33, Hanwha Eagles) started the mound against kt Wiz in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at Suwon kt Wiz Park on the 15th.
Pena has been a bit sluggish in two games this season. He did not do his part with an earned run average of 7.00 in 2 games, 9 innings, 10 hits, 5 walks, 6 strikeouts and 8 runs (7 earned runs). A lot of attention was paid to whether he would be able to find his original performance ahead of his third appearance.
On this day, Pena showed perfect pitching. Except for the bottom of the first inning, he did not concede a single run and blocked the opponent’s batting line.메이저사이트
He was attacked by Kang Baek-ho in the first inning. After one out, a four-seam fastball thrown at Kang Baek-ho at 152 km/h became a home run that went over the middle left, giving the team a 0-1 lead.
After that, Pena’s stable pitching continued. After one out at the end of the second inning, Kim Joon-tae got a heavy hit, but the new baseman treated the second baseman-shortstop-first baseman double hit to end the inning.
Pena stopped the third episode with a triple-trial. After one out in the bottom of the 4th inning, Anthony Alford doubled and Park Byung-ho allowed a walk to get 1 out and 1st and 2nd base.
In the 5th inning, after two outs, Kim Sang-soo hit left and Kim Min-hyeok walked, facing a crisis with 2 outs and 1st and 2nd bases, but Kang Baek-ho, who allowed a home run, turned it into a ground ball and succeeded in avenging himself. Afterwards, he was replaced with relief pitcher Lee Tae-yang before the defense in the bottom of the 6th inning, and the game ended.
The final score was 5 innings, 4 hits (1 home run), 2 walks, 3 strikeouts and 1 run. Along with fastballs such as two-seam fastball (34 pitches) and four-seam fastball (17 pitches), changeup (21 pitches) and curveball (11 pitches) harmonized to dominate the opponent’s lineup.
Pena showed a strong pitch to kt. In July of last year, he joined as a substitute foreign pitcher and showed perfect pitching with an average ERA of 1.02, 4 runs (2 ERA) in 3 games, 1 win, 1 loss, 17⅔ innings. And he broke the trend of sluggishness in the previous two games this year and displayed his talent as a forgotten ‘wizard killer’ by showing good pitching before kt.
Thanks to Pena’s good fight, Hanwha managed to escape from the bottom by beating the KIA Tigers with the first consecutive win of the season.
If Pena rebounds from today’s game, the team can gain greater momentum from the starting lineup. Pena pitched well that day and contributed to the team’s 7-2 victory. He announced his resurrection as a mage killer and concluded the first confrontation of the season.