Moon Dong-joo pitched well in an away game against the Lotte Giants at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 27th with seven hits and five strikeouts in six innings. He went down with the requirement for a starting win with a 1-0 lead, but the bullpen gave him three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning and lost the game, unfortunately, but lowered the season’s ERA from 5.71 to 5.38.

Regardless of victory or defeat, Moon’s pitching was impressive. After receiving consecutive hits from Ko Seung-min and Son Ho-young after the bottom of the first inning with one out, Moon was in danger of hitting the first and second bases, but Victor Reyes threw the second-lowest fork ball to induce a grounder to the second base. The inning was over with 4-6-3 double play. Jeon Joon-woo and Yoon Dong-hee hitters in the bottom of the second inning, and the crisis continued with one out and runners on the first and second bases, but he remained firm. After striking out Noh with a fork ball that was falling from the front of his home plate, he showed off his crisis management ability by inducing Sohn to pop fly to the first base.

In the bottom of the third inning, Hwang allowed an infield hit to the first baseman. When Ko Seung-min was at bat, his fork ball became a wild pitch on the third pitch, and Hwang immediately gave up two bases and was in danger of being on the third base with no outs. However, as Ko Seung-min’s well-hit ball became a straight hit to the front of the third baseman, Hwang was also out double.

Due to his good luck, Moon took out one infield hit at the bottom of the fourth inning and cleared three batters with a mistake. In the bottom of the fifth inning, he struck out Hwang with a high fastball on three pitches, making his first three-out strikeout on the day. In the bottom of the sixth inning, he allowed three strikeouts, striking out Reyes and Jeon.

The 84th pitch in the game against Reyes was marked 160 kilometers on the electronic display. He then lured the ball with two fork balls. Reyes endured the outer fork ball on the fifth pitch, but had to throw a bat on the fork ball that fell low in the middle of the sixth. He lost balance and had to kneel down after making a big mistake on the fork ball that was falling due to a huge fall.

The next batter, Jeon Joon-woo, also struck out swinging at a low curveball, and successfully made a quality start. With a total of 91 pitches, Moon garnered 59 strikes and 32 balls. He also threw sliders (18), curves (15), and folk balls (14), in addition to maximum speed of 159 kilometers per hour fastballs (44).

Fourteen fork balls with speeds of up to 140 kilometers per hour stand out. Since his debut, he threw many fork balls at the stadium, and Moon has taken out the ball since August. He used this ball as a crystal ball in high school, but his fingernails were often broken when throwing it, so he rarely throws it when he was a pro. Since then, he has tried to install change-up, an off-speed type, but it was not easy. He sometimes throws it, but it was not easy enough to attract batters.

In the first half of this season, Moon was sluggish in 13 games (66 ⅓ innings) with three wins and six losses and an earned run average of 6.92. His fastballs didn’t slow down significantly, but he kept getting hit by batters’ bats. He mostly threw fastballs, curves, and sliders, but his pitching pattern was monotonous. Fast sliders fit well with the timing of fastballs, and in fact, the only option for batters was fastballs or curves, but when his ball control was not working, he was undoubtedly attacked.

Feeling the need for a third pitch, Moon Dong-ju decided to release the fork ball that had been sealed so far. Since the first half of the year was in a bad condition, he practiced folk ball by reviving his sense of throwing in high school. On the 9th, Moon Dong-ju did not give much meaning to him, saying, “I’m throwing it because I remember throwing it in high school, but I’m still practicing,” but he has continued to throw folk balls since then. He usually uses it as a left-handed hitter, but in the match against Lotte on the day, he improved the degree of completion enough to be used as two strikeout decisions. In August, 41 of Moon Dong-ju’s 454 pitches were fork balls, with a 9.0% ratio.

Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon also viewed Moon Dong-ju’s use of folk balls positively. “If you start to see a ball that you haven’t thrown before, batters are less likely to hit the ball that much. The question is how well you throw the ball, but you are a pitcher who has a good fastball. If you throw a pitch that may not fit the timing and hitting the regular hit of the rest of the breaking balls, it will help you lead the innings,” Kim said.

In seven games (39 innings) in the second half of the season, Moon came back to life with a 3-1 record and 42 ERA with 2.77 strikeouts. He ranked fourth in ERA among 27 pitchers in the second half of the regular innings, ranking first among Korean pitchers excluding foreigners. The number of strikeouts per nine innings has significantly increased from 6.2 in the first half to 9.7 in the second half. Due to his aggressive pitching, he also reduced the number of walks per nine innings from 3.93 to 1.9 in all seven games. “He is confident in his ball count in his favor, and he will compete right away,” said manager Kim Kyung-moon. “He is pitching as good as Moon’s name.”

He suffered from severe growth pain due to two second-tier trips in the first half, but he wore a fork ball in the process. Moon Dong-ju, who did not waste his ordeal time, has a big weapon.

BY: 메이저놀이터