Hanwha's Moon Dong-ju, who beat even Ko Young-pyo, returned to the Daejeon prince everyone knew
Hanwha's Moon Dong-ju, who beat even Ko Young-pyo, returned to the Daejeon prince everyone knew
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The Hanwha Eagles, led by head coach Kim Kyung-moon, defeated manager Lee Kang-chul's KT Wiz 2-1 at the home game of the 2025 professional baseball KBO League held at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 26th. With this result, Hanwha, which has escaped its two consecutive losses, has 16 wins and 13 losses to rank fourth.
Starting pitcher Moon Dong-ju showed stellar performance. He took the lead in winning the Hanwha Eagles by tying KT's batters tightly. It was all the more meaningful as he had a showdown with Ko. Ko is KT's ace pitcher who played in 255 games (1,059.1 innings) with 63 wins, 59 losses and an earned run average of 3.98 with seven holds.
He started the game well from the top of the first inning. He garnered Mel Rojas Jr. (Three strikeouts), Kim Min-hyuk (a groundout at the third base), and Hur Kyung-min (a fly to right fielder) in turn, and thus started the game in a good mood. He calmly increased the out count against Jang Sung-woo (Three strikeouts), Moon Sang-cheol (a groundout for pitchers), and Oh Yoon-seok (Not Out) in the top of the second inning as well.토토사이트
He was neat as well in the top of the third inning. He defeated Yoo Jun-kyu (fly to center field) and Bae Jeong-dae (three strikeouts). Kwon had a hit to the midfielder, but Rojas was treated as a fly to center field. In the top of the fourth inning, Kim Min-hyuk (three strikeouts) and Huh Kyung-min (not out) were returned and walked Jang Sung-woo, but Moon Sang-chul was cooked with a pitcher ground ball.
He remained stable even in the top of the fifth inning. He caught Oh Yoon-seok (flying to center field), Yoo Jun-kyu (strikeout to second base), and Bae Jeong-dae (ground ball to second base). He gave up a hit to left in the top of the sixth inning to Kwon, but led Rojas, Kim Min-hyuk and Heo Kyung-min to strike out, catcher's grounder, and second baseman's grounder. Since then, he also tied Jang Sung-woo, Moon Sang-cheol and Oh Yoon-seok to shortstop, pitcher's grounder, and shortstop's grounder in the top of the seventh inning.
His first run came in the top of the eighth inning. Ryu Jun-kyu's walk, Hwang Jae-gyun's fly to the right field, and Kwon Dong-jin's hit to the right field drove them to the first and third bases with one out. Here, he allowed a sacrifice fly to the right field to Rojas, and took the first loss. Since then, Hanwha replaced the pitcher with right-handed Han Seung-hyuk. As Han Seung-hyuk did not allow the successor to make a home run, Moon's earned run did not increase.
His final record was three hits, two outs and eight strikeouts and one run in 7.2 innings. With a total of 100 pitches thrown, his maximum fastball speed was measured up to 156 kilometers. With the team leading 2-1, Moon Dong-ju also enjoyed the joy of becoming a winning pitcher as Hanwha eventually won.
Moon Dong-ju is a right-handed starter who is receiving a lot of attention as the next-generation ace for the Korean national team as well as Hanwha. After being called by Hanwha as the first overall pick in 2022, he only wrote one win, three losses and two holds with an ERA of 5.65 in 13 games (28.2 innings) that year, but he showed rapid growth in the 2023 season. He played in 23 games (118.2 innings), recording eight wins and eight losses with an ERA of 3.72, and was honored as the Rookie of the Year. He also played at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) 2023.
However, he did not perform well last year. He suffered from poor performance in the early days of the season. He seemed to rebound in the second half of the season, but was hampered by shoulder pain. Eventually, Moon will remain in the 2024 season with seven wins, seven losses and an earned run average of 5.17 in 21 games (111.1 innings).
Moon Dong-ju, who was desperate, was in the off-season and focused on building up the number of pitches until recently. Prior to the game against KT, he played in five games (22 innings) with a 2-1 record with a 3.68 ERA. And on the day, he played the most innings in this season, completely blocking the opponent team's batters. The Daejeon prince that Hanwha fans knew is back.