It wasn’t what we knew.
Samsung Lions foreign pitcher Albert Suarez started the eighth game of the season against the Hanwha Eagles in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at the Daejeon Hanwha Life Eagles Park on Thursday.
Suarez, who earned the nickname Sukrai last season after pitching well but only accumulating six wins, has been no different this season. In nine games, he has six QS (six starts with three runs or less), but only one win (four losses).
He’s made one appearance this season against the Hanwha. He didn’t have a smile on his face after posting a Quality Start+ (three earned runs or less in seven innings of work) on March 11, giving up four runs (three earned) on six hits (one homer) with two walks and seven strikeouts. He was saddled with the yoke of defeat and has lost three consecutive starts since then.
He got off to a bad start again. After getting Moon Hyun-bin to ground out to second base, he gave up a single to Jung Eun-won and back-to-back walks to Chae Eun-sung and Kim In-hwan to load the bases. Noh Si-hwan was hit by a pitch. Jung Eun-won, who was on third base, came home. The crisis was on. Jang gave up a single to Jang Jin-hyuk and a double to Choi Jae-hoon, giving up four runs in the first inning alone. Only after Kim Tae-yeon grounded out to second base did the long first inning end.
The second inning was no different. Lee Do-yoon, the leadoff hitter, grounded out to third, but gave up a single to Moon Hyun-bin.토토사이트 Jung Eun-won grounded out, allowing Moon to advance to second base. I just needed to get one out, but no. Chae Eun-sung singled and Kim In-hwan doubled to increase the lead to six.
The third inning was the Suarez we know. He got Jang Jin-hyuk to ground out to second, Choi Jae-hoon to ground out to third, and Kim Tae-hyun to strike out. In the fourth inning, all three batters grounded out to second base.
But in the fifth inning, he gave up a leadoff single to Chae Eun-sung. Kim In-hwan flied out to center field, but Noh gave up a single to Choi Jae-hoon to load the bases.
The Samsung bench opted to make a change. It was hard to trust Suarez, who had already thrown over 100 pitches.
With the bases loaded, the next batter, Woo Gyu-min, needed to not give up a run to keep Suarez from scoring, but Woo gave up a pinch-hit home run to Lee Jin-young. Suarez’s run total jumped to nine instead of six.
Suarez’s record for the day was 4.1 innings, eight hits, three walks, three strikeouts, and nine runs. This is the first time Suarez has gone less than five innings since March 2 against the Daegu NC Dinos. The nine runs were a career-high. His fastball reached a high of 154 mph on the day. He threw 110 pitches (32 fastballs, 30 sliders, 22 two-seamers, 21 changeups, and 5 curves) to little effect.
Suarez’s ERA rose to 4.98 from 3.93. It was Suarez’s worst outing since making his Korean debut. The team lost 5-10, bringing Suarez’s losses to five.
The recent numbers don’t look good for Suarez. He’s allowed a whopping 34 hits in his last four games. His walk rate is over 3%. What happened to the Suarez we knew?