The team’s ‘ace’ struggles were unexpected. Doosan Bears foreign pitcher Raul Alcantara is on the verge of losing.메이저사이트

Alcantara started the fourth game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League against the SSG Landers at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 26, giving up seven runs on 10 hits (one home run) in 5 1/3 innings with no walks. All seven runs were earned, the most Alcantara has allowed in a game this season (previously four against the Jamsil Lotte Giants on April 1). His season ERA jumped from 1.29 to 2.20.

The game didn’t start off with much of a crisis. Alcantara got off to a good start by retiring the side in order in the first and second innings. In the top of the third, he induced a bases-loaded walk to Kim Min-sik to get out of the jam.

After cruising through the top of the fourth inning, Alcantara began to falter in the middle of the inning. The first run of the game came in the top of the fifth inning when Choi Joo-hwan hit a two-run homer with the bases loaded to give his team a 3-0 lead.

In the top of the sixth, Park Sung-ho, Choi Jeong, and Guillermo Heredia were hit by three consecutive singles before Choi Joo-hwan and Han Yu-seom followed with back-to-back RBI singles. The Doosan bench, which had been counting on the ace until the end, couldn’t wait any longer and called on Park, who was warming up in the bullpen.

Alcantara threw 89 pitches on the day. He threw the most fastballs (39), followed by a splitter (21), slider (18), changeup (10), and curve (1). While his fastball was a powerful offering, touching up to 154 km/h, Alcantara failed to live up to the team’s expectations with his worst pitch of the season.