On April 9, the Hanwha Eagles were in last place in the Korea Baseball Organization standings, with five wins and 10 losses after the first 15 games. Despite a revamped starting rotation and an emerging young core, the Eagles seemed headed for yet another disappointing season. They last competed in the postseason in 2018, and that was their first trip in 11 years.
And yet on Thursday, almost exactly a month after hitting rock bottom, the Eagles find themselves at the top of the 10-team league. They won their ninth straight game Wednesday night, beating the Samsung Lions 10-6 at home in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul, and improved to 24-13-0 (wins-losses-ties) overall.
They lead the reeling LG Twins (23-14-0) by one game. The Twins, who began the season on a seven-game winning streak and once stretched their record to 20-7-0, have dropped seven of their last 10 contests.
The Eagles are riding their first nine-game winning streak since June 2005. They have not been alone in first place after at least 30 games into a season since June 2007.
Before their ongoing nine-game run, the Eagles had won eight straight games from April 13 to 23. They then lost two straight games before starting the current streak. They are the only KBO team this season with two winning streaks of at least eight games.
The Eagles boast the KBO's most dominant rotation this season. The five-man unit of Cody Ponce, Ryan Weiss, Ryu Hyun-jin, Um Sang-back and Moon Dong-ju -- four hard-throwers sandwiching a crafty lefty who once led Major League Baseball in ERA -- has combined for a league-best 20 wins. They have struck out more batters than any other rotation with 220 and have walked the fewest with 59. They have held their opponents to an on-base plus slugging of .618, the lowest mark in the KBO.
Because those starters have been munching innings, their bullpen has logged the fewest innings this season with 118. Those relievers are no slouches, with the second-lowest opponents' OPS of .676. The Eagles are a perfect 19-0-0 when leading after seven innings.
Ponce and Weiss are two of the hardest-throwing starters in the KBO, with Ponce leading all qualified starters with an average fastball velocity of 153.1 kilometers per hour. Closer Kim Seo-hyeon tops all relievers with 154.2 kph in average fastball velocity. Rookie reliever Jeong Woo-joo is third among relief pitchers at 151.6 kph.
On the other side of the equation, the Eagles only have a middling offense. In batting average, home runs, runs scored and OPS, among other categories, they are right around or below league average. With their pitchers doing the heavy lifting, the hitters haven't had to be much more than that.
But those hitters have shown a knack for coming through in key moments. They are batting .244 with a .693 OPS as a team to rank seventh overall in both categories. However, against relief pitchers, the Eagles lead the way with a .298 batting average and an .858 OPS. They have had the most comeback wins in the league this season with 15, with no one else in double figures in that category.
In recent years, no team has teased their fans more than these Eagles. They won eight games in a row during the 2023 season and seven straight during 2024. However, they finished in ninth place in 2023 and then in eighth place the following year.
Their fans, though, haven't given up on their team, their loyalty only matched by the Eagles' ineptitude on the field.
Armed with sublime pitching and opportunistic offense, the 2025 Eagles just may be different. (Yonhap)
