The reorganization took longer than expected. However, it was worth waiting a little longer. Professional baseball pitcher Moon Dong-ju (21) of the Hanwha Eagles won his first return match to the main league in 23 days, signaling his revival.메이저놀이터
Moon Dong-ju started the home game against the LG Twins at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 21st, and led Hanwha to an 8-4 victory by pitching five innings of one hit, one walk, four strikeouts and no runs. Hanwha won consecutive games in 51 days after winning seven consecutive games against KT in Daejeon on March 31, and it was his first victory in 54 days since the game against SSG in Munhak (five innings of six hits, two walks, five strikeouts and two runs) on March 28, his first appearance of the season. It was his second win (two losses) of the season.
There have been many twists and turns. After winning his first game, Moon continued to display ups and downs but suffered a big setback in the game against Doosan Bears in Daejeon on April 28, as he allowed 10 hits (three homers) and one walk, one strikeout and nine runs in three ⅓ innings. His worst pitch since his debut was to the second division team the following day. He needed time to rest once, and decided to skip the rotation once.
However, the team took longer time to reorganize itself in the second division than expected. I threw a bullpen session for the first time downstairs, but something wasn’t right. Not only the Futures team’s coaching staff but also Moon himself wasn’t sure. Usually, players would want to return to the first division as soon as possible, but Moon put the brakes on his own. “The coaching staff said the pitching balance is so bad that even in his opinion,” Hanwha manager Choi Won-ho said, giving him more time to readjust to the second division without rushing.
Moon did not waste the time. As Felix Peña was injured on the wrist in the match against NC in Daejeon on the 15th, Moon threw only one relief game (11 pitches in one inning against Samsung on the 14th) in the Futures League and moved to the first team. He had not increased the number of pitches as a starter, but he pitched five innings with 66 pitches. He was the only hit by Kim Bum-suk after two outs in the fourth inning. Except for one walk that he gave to Oh Ji-hwan in the third inning, his command was almost perfect.
Based on the speed of the track man, he displayed fastballs with speeds of up to 157 kilometers per hour and 153 kilometers per hour on average, and change-ups (five), two-seam, and cutters (one or more) around curves 22. As the ball was full of energy and curves were well controlled from the first to the fifth innings, a fastball-curve-two pitch alone was sufficient to overwhelm LG’s batters. As Moon Dong-joo, who we all knew, has made a successful comeback.
After the game, Moon said, “The best part was that I didn’t miss much of the ball even in the full count. For the first time today, I felt the ball was strong. It was good since I warmed up,” adding, “I went back to the second division and took a lot of training.” Thanks to the attention from coaches Lee Dae-jin and Park Jeong-jin, Mile-young and Jung Woo-ram in the second division, I was able to recover well in a short period of time. No matter how hard I tried to think by myself, it would have been difficult without the help of coaches and coaches. He also managed my mind well so that I wouldn’t miss a lot of hard times,” he said, thanking the Futures coaching staff.
On things that didn’t go well before that, Moon said, “It’s not one thing. There were many problems, and when I first joined the second team, I was worried about which problem to start with, but the coaches and coaches were good at keeping the point,” he said. “I also looked for videos when I was good last year and did a lot of comparative analysis. There were problems in several places, not just one part. I’m still in the process of solving it, but I think today’s game turned out well. I think the game will be better from now on.”
Any player who joined the second team wants to join the first team as soon as possible. However, Moon did not want to go up without being ready on his own. Being a young player, he is not usually judgmental and courageous. “I wanted to go up quickly if I wanted to, but I was not ready even for myself. I fought against batters in the first team, but after starting pitching again (in the second team), I started fighting against myself. As I dug deeper into problems, I wished I had more time. For that reason, (the time I spent in the second team) did not feel long. I think I did well during that time, and I got good results,” he said.
While Moon was away, Hanwha had two high school graduate rookie left-handers, Hwang Joon-seo and Cho Dong-wook, in the starting rotation. As Moon’s return to the first division was delayed, Cho Dong-wook, who was called up as a starter, won his debut match. Hwang Joon-seo has been losing four consecutive games since his debut win, but has not collapsed significantly with a 4.86 ERA and continues to maintain his position in the starting rotation.
“I was so grateful that Jun-seo and Dong-wook threw well while I was away. I fell in love with how he threw well,” Moon said. “Now, I will do my best to make the younger members throw without feeling pressured. Jun-seo, Dong-wook, and (Ryu) Hyun-jin held out well in my absence. Now, I have to endure well. I will work hard with a sense of responsibility so that I don’t fall into the second division again.”