Hanwha lost its season opener against Kiwoom 2-3 on April 1 in Gocheok. The losing pitcher was veteran right-hander Jang Si-hwan, 36, who took the mound as the team’s eighth pitcher in the bottom of the 10th inning with the score tied 2-2 and gave up the winning run to Kiwoom’s Lee Hyung-jong. For Jang, it was his 19th consecutive loss, the most in the league.
As a starting pitcher for Hanwha in the 2020 season, Jang went 4-14 with a 5.02 ERA in 26 games. His last win of the year came against Doosan on September 22, when he pitched six innings of one-run ball. He ended the season with two straight losses in the final three games of the season, and the following year he went 19 games without a win and 11 losses (one hold). Eventually, his losing streak grew to 13.
In his last season in the bullpen, he did his part with a 5-5 record, 14 saves, and a 4.38 ERA in 64 games, but he didn’t have a single win during his five losses. His losing streak is now equal to that of Shim Soo-chang, who retired with 18 consecutive losses. After adding a loss to his first game of the new season, Jang Si-hwan was demoted to the second team in eight days after posting a 13.50 ERA in three games.
Zhang Sihuan broke his horrendous losing streak against Gocheok Kiumgang, who coincidentally had a 19-game losing streak against him. Jang, who was reinstated to the first team early last month, came on as a substitute in the bottom of the seventh inning of a 3-6 defeat to Gocheok Kiwoom on May 25 and pitched a clean inning. The quiet Hanwha bats exploded for 13 runs in the top of the eighth off Kiwoom pitchers, and Hanwha went on to win 16-6. Jang Si-hwan was the winning pitcher.
After throwing off the shackles of back-to-back losses, Jang Si-hwan bounced back strongly. Since returning to the first team, Jang is 1-0 with a 1.06 ERA in 16 games with one save and four holds, making him the most reliable option in the Hanwha bullpen.먹튀검증
His BABIP is 0.109 and his WHIP (walks allowed per inning) is a steady 0.75. He has a fastball that sits in the high 100s of miles per hour and a changeup with good command, including a curveball and slider. Since August, when he has been used as a must-win pitcher, he has gone nine consecutive games without allowing an earned run. He perfectly fills the gap left by the poor performance of existing bullpen pitchers such as Yoon Dae-kyung and Kang Jae-min.
Jang Si-hwan, who had been contemplating retirement due to a long losing streak, has emerged as an indispensable part of Hanwha’s second half.