The Hanwha Eagles will field fireballer Moon Dong-ju (21), who is weak against the Doosan Bears this season. It is possible to pull the current first starter Ryan Weiss, but he believes in Moon and wants to continue his hope of reaching the fifth round.
Hanwha announced Monday that right-hander Moon Dong-ju will be its starting pitcher for the home game against Doosan Bears, which will take place at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on Sunday. At Doosan, side-arm Choi Won-joon will be the starting pitcher.
Moon pitched 105 ⅓ innings in 20 games this season, recording six wins and seven losses with a 5.38 strikeout and 88 ERA. In the first half, he was sluggish in 13 games (66 ⅓ innings) with 3-6 losses and a 6.92 ERA, and played in the second division twice, but succeeded in rebounding in the second half.
He garnered three wins and one loss with an earned run average of 2.77 in seven games (39 innings) in the second half of the season. The number of strikeouts per nine innings increased from 6.2 in the first half to 9.7 in the second half. With the maximum speed of 159 kilometers per hour in terms of track man, the team has adopted folk balls as a new weapon since August, and its pitching repertoire has become more diverse.
He will meet Doosan in a completely different style. Moon lost all three games against Doosan this year, showing his ERA at 18.56. At the Jamsil game on April 10, he collapsed with six hits (one homer) and three walks, two strikeouts and six runs in three ⅓ innings, and at the Daejeon game on April 28, he also suffered a rough hit with 10 hits (three homeruns) and one strikeout and nine runs in three ⅓ innings.
At the match against Doosan Bears on June 26, he had eight hits (one homer), four walks, one strikeout and seven runs scored in four innings. In all three games against Doosan, he suffered greatly with a batting average of around 40 percent (.453) with no more than five innings. 스포츠토토
Considering such compatibility, he could have avoided starting the game against Doosan on Thursday without giving up Moon Dong-ju. As Weiss, who has shown the best pace recently, took five days off since the game against Sajik Lotte on April 28, he could have changed order with Moon and taken the mound against Doosan on the same day. Weiss won the game against Doosan in Jamsil on April 23 by allowing three hits, one walk, six strikeouts and one run in six innings.
However, Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon did not change the rotation order and pushed Moon to the match against Doosan. For now, he has faith in Moon. Although he was weak in the match against Doosan, it was when Moon was not good in the first half. As Moon is a completely different pitcher in the second half of the season, we can expect him to throw a different pitch.
Moon also seems to have made the decision after considering his next opponent’s schedule. Moon will take a four-day break after the game against Doosan on Thursday and take the mound at the game against LG Electronics in Jamsil on Tuesday. He has strong confidence as he posted two wins and an ERA of 1.06 in three games against LG this year.
On the other hand, Weiss was weak at the game against LG with one loss and an earned run average of 9.82. By keeping the original rotation order, Weiss could skip the game against LG and start at the game against SSG Munhak on Wednesday. Against SSG, he won the game against Samsung Group by allowing two hits (one homer) and two walks, 12 strikeouts and one run during six ⅔ innings at a game against Samsung Electronics on June 16.
Hanwha lost one win and three games last week, dampening its explosive momentum in midsummer. Notably, it was regrettable that it lost 2-6 even though it started ace pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin at a home game in Daejeon on March 31 when it faced off fifth-ranked KT. Although the gap with fifth-ranked KT widened to 2.5 games, it still has 22 more games to go, and it is not the time to give up the semifinal at all. To revive hopes for the fifth-ranked KT, the team needs to start six games this week, especially on March 3 against Doosan.
Doosan is also busy facing the Hanwha Eagles. It has struggled in 10 games including three consecutive losses recently, losing three games to seven, and is trailing fifth-ranked KT by one game. As the fourth-ranked team is also in jeopardy, it needs to catch the match against Hanwha on the day, but it is burdensome that the team is inferior to the opponent team by posting six wins and nine losses.
Starting pitcher Choi Won-joon is playing an important role. Choi, who has five wins, six losses and a 6.54 ERA in 21 games (96 ⅓ innings) this season, struggled against Hanwha with one win and one loss and a 6.30 ERA in two games. On June 13, Jamsil won the game by allowing eight hits and two walks in five ⅔ innings with three strikeouts and three runs, but failed to complete the fifth inning in Daejeon on June 25, allowing four hits and two walks in four ⅓ innings with three strikeouts and four runs.