Now, it has reached the point where it is not possible to guarantee that it will advance to the fifth round. Doosan Bears are in a big crisis.
Doosan lost 1-7 in the final game of the 16th game of the season between the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL bank KBO League teams at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 3rd, falling into a swamp of four consecutive losses.스포츠토토
Doosan got off to a not bad start with a winning rate of 0.485 (6th place) from March to April this year with 16 wins and 17 losses. Although it did not have a 50% winning rate, it passed through difficult times, such as injuries to foreigners “one-two punch” Brandon Waddell and Raul Alcantara. And in May, when Brandon returned from injury, he began to rise with the best performance among the 10 clubs with 16 wins, two draws and eight losses.
Doosan seemed to see its performance decline again to 12 wins and 14 losses since the start of its schedule in June, but ended its first half with a winning rate of 0.541, ranking third in the league. However, a flurry of bad news began to emerge from the end of the first half. “Ace” Brandon was forced to leave due to injury again, and Alcantara also showed no signs of rebound, shaking the mound significantly. Doosan was not just letting go.
Doosan ended its stint with Alcantara by recruiting Jordan Balazovic and displayed a winning move by embracing Keisho Shirakawa as a “short-term foreign player” to minimize Brandon’s departure. However, Doosan hardly showed any signs of rebound, with seven wins and 11 losses even after the second half of the season began. Doosan pulled its sword out once again. This time, it said goodbye to Henry Ramos and brought Jarrod Young. It was a struggle to change the mood somehow.
For now, recruiting Jarrod is continuing successfully. For the month of August, Jarrod swung the bat with 27 hits, seven homers, 19 RBIs and a batting average of 0.307 OPS of 1.052, and has been playing 33 hits, nine homers and 27 RBIs with a batting average of 0.317 OPS of 1.102 in 27 games until the end of the game on Thursday. Despite Jarrod’s recruitment, however, he failed to reverse the mood even in August, starting with a showdown with the NC Dinos on April 29, he kneeled down to the Lotte Giants and Hanwha Eagles in succession, falling into a quagmire of four consecutive losses.
There are various reasons why Doosan has failed to display strength these days. With Brandon’s pain relapse in the build-up process to return to the team, making it uncertain to return within the regular season, the starting lineup is faltering as Shirakawa, who extended his contract, leaves the team without completing the entire period due to an elbow injury. Doosan has the lowest starting ERA of 6.13 since August.
The team’s batting average is also in a serious slump. Doosan has ranked eighth in the league with a batting average of 0.268 since August. With the exception of Jarrod, Kim Jae-hwan, and Jung Soo-bin, Yang Seok-hwan, and Heo Kyung-min, who are expected to be performers, have been struggling with a batting average of around 200 percent since their schedules began in August. There are also concerns over the mound, but the players are clearly different in condition in the batting lineup.
Coach Lee Seung-yeop declared an all-out war ahead of his showdown with the Lotte Giants on April 31. Doosan has played the most games among the 10 teams. It has been running tirelessly in the midst of hot summer weather. As a result, Doosan has displayed its commitment to increase as many wins as possible by taking advantage of its schedule, as its schedule includes plenty of rest days between games. Rather than recording individual players’ records, Doosan expressed its commitment to manage its team for the team.
However, Doosan’s strategy of winning and losing games is not working. Doosan replaced all of the starting pitchers quickly through two consecutive games against Lotte over the weekend and the game against Hanwha on Sunday, but the team has been mired in consecutive losses as its batters did not respond. As a result, the gap with KT Wiz at the end of the game on Thursday has narrowed to 0.5 games. It is only 2.5 games behind sixth-ranked Hanwha. It can be said that the team is facing the worst situation.
Doosan has struggled due to foreign players since the beginning of the season, and has shown no signs of recovery until its batters recently, showing no signs of recovery. If the current trend continues, Doosan may not be able to advance to the semifinals for two consecutive years.