Kim Seo-hyun (Hanwha Eagles) couldn’t laugh again.
Kim Seo-hyun took the mound with one out and one base in a home game against the KIA Tigers in the 2026 professional baseball KBO League regular season at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 20th. It was the first time in 105 days that Kim Seo-hyun took the mound in the first division game since the match against KIA in Gwangju on May 7.
It wasn’t a good start. Kim Do-young hit a heavy hit. Later, Harold Castro drew a ground ball to first base, but in the meantime, the successor homered, and the fielder’s choice lived all the runners.
The crisis continued. Na Sung-bum’s hit to the right led to the bases loaded with one out. Here, Oh Sun-woo was struck out swinging, but Kim Do-young scored by committing a pitch to Kim Tae-gun. He then dealt with Chung Hyun-chang with a ground ball to the first base, ending the inning with a hard ball.
The final score was 0.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 four outs, 1 strikeout, and 1 run. The total number of pitches was 22, and the maximum fastball speed was measured up to 151 km.
Kim Seo-hyun, who was designated by Hanwha as the first overall player in 2023, is a right-handed pitcher who recorded 4 wins, 8 losses, 35 saves, 12 holds, and an ERA of 4.54 in 138 games (134.2 innings) before the day. In particular, he played well last year. In 69 games (66 innings), he contributed to Hanwha’s advance to the Korean Series with 2 wins, 4 losses, 2 holds, 33 saves and an ERA of 3.14.
However, he has been in a severe slump since the end of last year. On October 1, 2025, he was at the center of a 5-6 upset loss, allowing Hyun Won-hoe and Lee Yul-ye to make two-run shots in succession against the Incheon SSG Landers. Since then, he has not been able to laugh with one win and a 14.73 ERA in five postseason games.
It has not rebounded this year. He played in 12 games before the KIA match, but had only one win, two losses and one save with a 12.38 ERA. It was because the ball control was shaken to the extent that he committed 19 pitches in eight innings.
In response, Kim Seo-hyun had a time to readjust in the Futures League (second division). Recently, he conducted a short training session for about 20 days at NEXT BASE ATHLETES LAB, a sports science training facility in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
However, it seems that more time is still needed. He took the mound for the first time in a long time on this day, but he still slowed down with Jung Woo-joo (0.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 homer, 1 strikeout, 3 runs) and deepened Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon’s concerns.
Meanwhile, Hanwha was completely defeated by KIA 6-10 in that game. As a result, Hanwha, which has lost 56 games (48 wins and 3 draws) at the same time as it has fallen from 6th place to 8th place, reducing hope for autumn baseball.
