The 'Ace in the Hole' Lee Seung-Yeop-ho's Sweep Was Always Alcantara

 Raul Alcantara (31) has been Doosan's ace. Even better, he showed off his nemesis Hanwha once again.

Alcantara pitched eight innings of two-hit ball with no walks and 10 strikeouts against the Hanwha Eagles in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Monday.

The team won 2-1, giving Alcantara his seventh win of the season.

Most importantly, the team proved to be strong against Hanwha. Before this game, he had two wins and a 0.60 ERA in two games, and after this game, he won three games and lowered his ERA to 0.39. It was their seventh straight win against Hanwha. Even when he won 20 games in 2020, he was strong against Hanwha. In three games, he went 2-0 with a 0.43 ERA.

Alcantara was solid even when the starting rotation wasn't at full strength due to injuries to Dylan Pyle and Kwak-Bin Kwak. After going 2-2 with a 2.25 ERA in five games in April, Alcantara bounced back with a three-game sweep in five games in May. He also pitched seven and eight innings in two games in June, giving the mound some breathing room with quality starts.

Alcantara threw 107 pitches on the day, including 50 four-seam fastballs that topped out at 154 mph, his main weapon, a splitter (33), slider (19) and curve (5).

Doosan had the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, but Park Chi-guk, who came on in relief, got Noh Si-hwan to fly out and Chae Eun-sung to ground out to preserve the win. Alcantara was all smiles.

"It was a good game, and it feels good to have pitched in both of the games that completed the team's three-game sweep," Alcantara said after the game.

메이저놀이터 This is the second series sweep for Doosan. The first was against the KIA in Jamsil from May 12-14. Kim Dong-joo, Choi Seung-yong and Alcantara completed the three-game sweep.

"There was a lot of pressure on the bullpen yesterday (July 7), so I went to the mound with the intention of relieving the pressure by pitching long innings before the game. We had a crisis in the ninth inning, but I wasn't worried at all because I trusted my teammates."