“I feel like Korea is giving me a lot of gifts.”

Hanwha’s gifted pitcher Ricardo Sanchez threw eight scoreless innings on 112 pitches on Tuesday against the LG Twins in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon. He pitched a complete game shutout to lead Hanwha to a 7-0 victory. This is the first time he has pitched more than eight innings in a game, even including his minor league career. It was also his highest pitch count in a single game since his debut.메이저놀이터

Even so, his 112th pitch was clocked at 151 kilometers per hour. Sanchez had plenty of energy left, but he didn’t need to pitch the ninth inning. After the game, Sanchez said, “It was the first time I threw more than 110 pitches in my debut. “If I let my emotions get the better of me, I could get in trouble and not be able to help the team,” he said calmly, “so I tried to finish in the eighth to avoid that.

He had never pitched eight innings before, but he knew he had to keep going. “From the seventh to the eighth inning, I felt good, so I knew I had to keep going,” Sanchez said. I actually didn’t realize how many pitches I had thrown until the seventh inning (86 pitches in seven innings). I just knew I had to stay on the mound as long as I could, and now that I don’t have a pitch count limit, I was able to keep throwing. The only time I paid attention to my pitch count was in the eighth inning when I was facing Kim Min-sung and the foul balls kept coming. I looked back at the scoreboard and realized that I had thrown enough pitches.”

With the bases loaded in the top of the third inning, Sanchez was unperturbed by a sudden downpour that halted play for 43 minutes. In the third inning, he used his changeup to get out of a jam early. “After the rain, it got chilly,” Sanchez said. So I was trying to get through the inning by throwing a lot of curveballs, which is my most talked-about pitch, and once I warmed up, I went back to my game plan,” Sanchez explained.

“In the U.S., we have a lot of rain interruptions. I was used to it. I’ve waited 40 minutes, 50 minutes, more than an hour. So I warmed up in the bullpen beforehand and waited for the resumption.”

In the six games Sanchez pitched, Hanwha won all six. “I think that’s why they wanted me. I want the team to feel comfortable when I’m pitching. I want my teammates to have a positive mindset when I go out there,” he said.

Sanchez said, “I think this is the best game of my career. I’ve never pitched eight scoreless innings. I haven’t thrown a complete game yet. I feel like Korea is giving me a lot of gifts. It’s the first time I’ve thrown more than 100 pitches (second on record, 105 pitches in five innings on July 7, 2017) and the first time I’ve thrown more than eight innings and not given up a run, so I think I’m getting used to it,” he said, expressing his love for his new league and new team.

His family, who came to Korea with him, is also happy with the new environment. “My family and I like it here,” Sanchez said. My wife is very happy here. She’s happy that I’m helping the team and contributing to our performance,” he said.