Doosan Bears starting agent Choi Won-jun (30) earned the trust of coach Lee Seung-yeop with a brilliant pitch in the NC Dinos game on the 25th.
Choi Won-jun started the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League NC game held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on this day and recorded 2 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run in 6⅔ innings.
Choi Won-jun, who came down from the mound after two outs in the seventh inning with a 6-1 lead, earned his second win (one loss) of the season as his team ultimately won 7-3.
Choi Won-jun’s performance could be a great help to Doosan.
Doosan had a starting rotation this season consisting of Raul Alcantara, Brandon Waddell, Kwak Bin, Choi Won-jun, and Kim Dong-ju, but it was hampered by unexpected injuries and poor performance. Previously, Brandon was excluded from the first team due to a back injury, and on this day, Alcantara was canceled from the entry due to a right elbow sprain.
Kim Dong-ju also performed poorly with 1 win, 1 loss, and an ERA of 5.48 in 5 games, so he went to the second team. Choi Won-jun also faltered with 1 win, 1 loss, and an average ERA of 13.09 before this day. In fact, except for Kwak Bin, there were no starting pitchers who played their roles.
On this day, Doosan seemed likely to lose the starting battle to NC, led by foreign ace Castano. Coach Lee Seung-yeop expressed his anxiety before the game, saying, “Choi Won-jun’s pitching goes back and forth.”
However, once the game started, Choi Won-jun’s performance was amazing.
Choi Won-joon, who blocked NC’s famous team of Park Min-woo, Son A-seop and Park Geon-woo with a triple strike in the top of the first inning, was hit by Oh Young-soo after two outs in the second inning, but ended the inning by striking out Seo Ho-cheol.
Doosan’s batting lineup relieved Choi Won-jun’s shoulders by scoring 4 runs from the bottom of the first inning.
He blocked the third inning with a three-way strike and gave up a walk to his first opponent, Son Ah-seop, in the fourth inning, but cleanly disposed of the next three batters. In the 5th inning, it was a three-way inning again.
After two outs in the sixth inning, Son A-seop was put on base due to an error by the second baseman, but Park Geon-woo was blocked by a fly ball to center field. Choi Won-jun, whose most innings pitched in the previous game this season was 5 (March 27 against KT Wiz), was on the mound in the 7th inning as well.
Choi Won-jun got the first two outs, but after giving up a bases-loaded ball to Oh Young-soo, Do Tae-hoon hit an RBI double and gave up his first run. Afterwards, Manager Lee decided to make a change and changed the pitcher to Kim Myeong-shin.
Choi Won-jun, who performed the best pitching this season, came down from the mound to generous applause from fans.
Choi Won-jun’s ‘surprising performance’ in a situation where the starting lineup collapsed could truly be seen as ‘a rain in a drought.’
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