Noh Si-hwan ends… Won the 1st game after a ‘game of victory’
Moon Dong-joo started on the mound against Australia in the first game of the 2023 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) held at the Tokyo Dome in Bunkyo-gu, Tokyo, Japan on the 16th (Korean time) and pitched for 5⅔ innings. He recorded 102 pitches, 5 hits (1 home run), 5 strikeouts, 4 walks, and 2 runs (2 earned). His highest velocity is 154km.
In the case of APBC, unlike other international competitions, it is a competition that focuses on providing 'experience' to young prospects rather than 'performance'. However, if you are a professional player, no matter how important your performance is, you cannot help but have a burning desire to compete. And if the best performance is achieved, this can be directly related to the growth of the players. Therefore, from the first training session of the APBC national team, coach Ryu Joong-il expressed his determination to defeat Australia and Chinese Taipei with the goal of advancing to the 'finals'.
As a result, coach Ryu Joong-il selected Moon Dong-ju as the starter from the first match against Australia, rather than the match against Japan or the final. The head coach said on the 15th, "We can only advance to the finals if we win against Australia. I chose Moon Dong-joo as the starter for the first game because he is in the best condition." Moon Dong-ju also said, "I prepared well starting in Korea. I am in great condition. Asian Games." “I have good memories from that time, and I will take the mound with good energy,” he said, igniting his will to win.
On this day, Moon Dong-ju conceded the fewest goals, but the content of the game was a bit disappointing. He didn't start well. Moon Dong-ju started the game by having difficulty controlling from the first inning, sending out leadoff hitter Liam Spence. After Moon Dong-ju's wild pitch and walk caused a crisis with one out and runners on first and third base, they seemed to be able to take a breather when Australia's No. 4 Alex Hall was hit by a foul fly to third base, but they gave up the first run after a timely hit by Clayton Campbell. Fortunately, he struck out the last out and finished the inning without allowing any additional runs.
There were no runs conceded, but the unstable pitching continued. Moon Dong-ju appeared to end the inning without a crisis, quickly accumulating outs with a fly ball to right field and a ground ball to first base in the second inning. However, with two outs and no runners on base, he allowed a hit to Briley Knight and gave up another hit to the follow-up hitter, Spence. At this time, Moon Dong-ju finished the inning with help from right fielder Yoon Dong-hee's strong arm. Afterwards, Moon Dong-ju allowed a hit in the third inning and a walk in the fourth, sending out runners in each inning.
His cleanest inning was the fifth. Facing Australia's top batting lineup, which started with the first batter, Moon Dong-ju threw out the first batter, a fly ball to right field, and then struck out both Aaron Whitefield and Rickson Wingrove, ending the inning with a three-way strike. Initially, manager Ryu Joong-il announced his intention to cut off Dong-ju Moon between 80 and 90 pitches, but at the end of the 5th inning, Dong-ju Moon's pitch count was 84 pitches. However, Moon Dong-ju appeared on the mound in the 6th inning as well.
The bench's judgment was completely wrong. Moon Dong-ju was attacked by leadoff hitter Alex Hall in the 6th inning with a 150km fastball on the 3rd pitch, and he hit a solo home run that went over the right fence, giving Australia the lead once again. Still, Moon Dong-ju did not lose his composure, and after adding two more outs, he walked Jesse Williams and went down the mound.
Coach Ryu Joong-il expressed his apologies to Moon Dong-ju after the game. This is because, unlike his intention to cut off 8 to 90 phrases, he only sprinkled 102 phrases. The head coach said, "Before the game, he thought 90 because he hadn't played for a long time, but after the 5th inning, the balance was good, so he thought 100," and "I personally feel sorry."
Despite sending out a runner in every inning except for the 5th inning, the Korean national team defeated Australia thanks to Dong-joo Moon's pitching, which limited the 5⅔ innings to just 2 runs (2 earned), the solid pitching of the relief pitchers, and Noh Si-hwan's timely hit to end the comeback in the shootout. By defeating the team 3-2, they avenged their humiliation at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) last March.
Moon Dong-joo's pitching received a lot of attention from the Japanese local media, but what did they think of it? A reporter from a Japanese sports media outlet who requested anonymity and watched Moon Dong-joo's pitching at the Tokyo Dome said, "Moon Dong-joo clearly did not have good control at the beginning of the game. In particular, he seemed to have a hard time controlling breaking balls such as changeups. However, he always hit balls faster than 150 km/h. He gave a thumbs up, saying, “There was power in every ball. It was definitely impressive.”
Despite Moon Dong-ju's struggles with control, he was praised for allowing only 2 runs in 5⅔ innings, but some cold comments followed. He said, "If you ask me if I'm on the level of Loki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte Marines) and Shohei Otani, I don't think I'm at that level yet," but added, "But I think I'm second to none when it comes to fastballs." He said, "As he gains experience and grows a little more, he becomes a scary pitcher." It was predicted that it would be.
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