Hanwha Eagles Ryu Hyun-jin (37), Moon Dong-ju (21), and Ryan Weiss (28) have been steadily pitching stably as starting pitchers in the second half of the year, giving their team a great boost to the competition for the semifinals.메이저놀이터
The most noticeable part of these three pitchers’ recent performance is the use of “decision ball.” They are actively using their own “magic ball” to attract batters’ bats.
Known as a “change-up master,” Ryu actually used change-up the most among breaking balls this season. His fastball and pitching form have shown almost the same unique strengths, causing great confusion to batters.
However, Ryu is not only using changeups as a deciding ball. In particular, he is bringing up his own secret weapon at the most important showdown in this season. It is a high-speed slider. After returning to the KBO league this year, he is playing high-speed sliders that he has often thrown since the Major League, which is the most important showdown.
Ryu garnered his eighth win of the season by pitching seven innings of one run against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on April 25. At the end of the seventh inning, he struck out Yang Eui-ji with a swing and miss with two outs and runners on the first and second bases, and the last ball he threw was a high-speed slider. In an interview after the game, Ryu said, “I only threw one pitch today.”
Moon Dong-ju, who has maintained his peak form in the second half of the year, has been actively using folk balls that he has often thrown since he was an amateur. He started throwing folk balls little by little in August, and selected 12 out of a total of 84 balls against Doosan in Daejeon on March 3.
The result was a huge success. In 13 games in the first half, Moon showed sluggish performance with three wins and six losses and an ERA of 6.92. However, in eight games in the second half, he rebounded with four wins and one loss and ERA of 2.60, displaying ace-class performance.
Among the three, Weiss is in the best condition these days. Weiss pitched 7.2 innings with eight strikeouts and one run against the Gwangju KIA Tigers on Sunday. He is on the rise in quality start (pitching six innings or more and three earned runs or less) of five consecutive games.
Weiss plays the best sweeper among pitchers who are active in the KBO League this season. He uses a sweeper that goes out wide at an angle based on right-handed hitters to make his bat spin in vain.
Sweeper’s pitching menu with a wider variety of repertoires than when he made his debut in the KBO League is also enhancing his power. Weiss did not throw many curveballs until early July. However, he is increasing the proportion of curves, further complicating batters’ minds. Throwing the sweeper, which shows the strongest strength in this situation, inevitably weakens batters’ ability to cope with it.