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‘Korean Monster’ Ryu Hyun-jin of the Hanwha Eagles hit a historic milestone on Sunday.
On May 24 at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark, Ryu took the mound for Hanwha against the Doosan Bears in the 2026 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League. He worked 6 2/3 innings, throwing 104 pitches, allowing six hits, striking out three and surrendering two runs—while issuing no walks.
With Hanwha up 5-2 in the top of the seventh and two outs with runners at first and second, Ryu exited the game. The bullpen preserved the lead, handing him his fifth win of the season (against two losses) and the 200th victory of his professional career across Korea and the United States. He became only the second Korean pitcher to reach 200 career wins across domestic and international pro leagues — following Song Jin-woo (former Hanwha, 210 wins) — and the first to reach the mark with Major League Baseball wins included.
Ryu entered the game with 199 career wins after his May 12 outing against Kiwoom and after an earlier chance slipped away following a bullpen collapse on May 17 against KT. He was sharp from the outset on Sunday, retiring the side in order through three innings. He yielded his first hit in the fourth to Park Ji-hoon but escaped the frame with a groundout and a flyout, demonstrating calm under pressure.
Hanwha’s offense did its part. Moon Hyun-bin produced the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first. In the fourth, Yonathan Peraza crushed a solo homer (his ninth of the season), and Lee Do-yoon followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0. In the fifth, Lee Won-seok and Moon Hyun-bin added back-to-back RBI hits to push the lead to 5-0 and ease the burden on Ryu.
Ryu allowed his first run in the sixth when Jung Soo-bin tripled and Park Chan-ho followed with an RBI single. In the seventh, after surrendering consecutive hits with two outs, he gave up a second run and handed the ball to reliever Kim Jong-soo.
What followed was tense drama. In the eighth, Kim Jong-soo loaded the bases with two outs but escaped when pinch-hitter Son Ah-seop hit a grounder to shortstop. The ninth inning was even more nerve-wracking: closer Park Sang-won entered and allowed three straight hits, loading the bases with no outs.
The Daejeon crowd fell silent, but Park responded in clutch fashion—inducing a pitcher groundout, a foul out and a grounder to shortstop to strand the bases and close out the game without allowing another run, sealing Ryu’s 200th victory.
Ryu burst onto the KBO stage in 2006, winning both Rookie of the Year and MVP. He posted 98 wins over seven seasons in Korea before moving to MLB, where he notched 78 wins across 11 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (54) and the Toronto Blue Jays (24).
After making a high-profile return to Hanwha in 2024, Ryu added 24 more wins through Sunday, bringing his totals to 122 KBO wins and 78 MLB wins—a combined 200 victories as a starting pitcher.
Lee Won-seok (2-for-4, 1 RBI) and Yonathan Peraza (2-for-3, 1 HR, 1 RBI) also delivered key hits for Hanwha.
Hanwha completed a clean sweep of the three-game weekend series against Doosan, extending their winning streak to three and improving to 23-24, moving past SSG into sole possession of fifth place. Doosan dropped its third straight and fell to 22-1-25, sliding into a tie for sixth.
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