Korea's ace in the second half, who also ranked No. 1 in ERA 1.38 with two wins and no losses. Moon Dong-ju, who has won nine games over the Rookie of the Year award, has become stronger in the fight for No. 1 ranking. He likes such situations more.
Aug 10, 2025
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Moon Dong-ju started in an away game against the LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium on the 10th and led his team to a 5-4 victory with five hits, three walks, five strikeouts and two runs in six innings.
Moon Dong-ju, who won his ninth win (3 losses) of the season, has won more than eight wins in 2023 and recorded his most wins of the season. And if you add one more win, you will achieve your first 10 wins since debut.
He is in the best condition among Korean pitchers in the second half of the year. All four games on this day are quality starts. Moon Dong-ju, who became the winning pitcher with two hits and no runs in six innings against Doosan on July 22, recorded a quality start plus of seven hits (two home runs) in seven innings against SSG on the 27th. And in the game against KT on the 5th, last Tuesday, he showed tremendous pitching with two hits and 10 strikeouts in seven innings. Moon Dong-joo, who met the requirements for a winning pitcher but failed to secure nine wins due to his team's upset loss, challenged for nine wins again against LG and won nine wins by allowing two runs again.
After one out in the bottom of the first inning, Moon Sung-joo hit a shortstop glove and bounced toward left field, but Moon Sung-joo ran to second base and was out, and Moon Dong-joo, who threw only six pitches and finished three batters, faced his first crisis in the bottom of the second inning. He gave up hits to Kim Hyun-soo and Chun Sung-ho and allowed a walk to Lee Joo-heon, loading the bases with two outs. Fortunately, he caught Park Hae-min with a fly to center field.
Moon Dong-ju, who finished the third and fourth innings with three outs, allowed Lee Joo-heon to hit the right field at the end of the fifth inning, but finished the follow-up hitter with a mistake.
In the meantime, Hanwha hitters scored steadily. In the top of the third inning, Son Ah-seop scored the first run with a ground ball in front of the second base with one out and runners on the second base, and in the top of the fifth inning, Son Ah-seop's double with one out and runners on the second base added another run.
The end of the sixth inning was the second crisis. He gave up a straight walk to the first-runner Moon Sung-joo and drove to the second and third bases with no outs after Austin hit a double in left-center. Moon Bo-kyung then allowed Kim Hyun-soo to score a 2-2 tie by allowing two runs on a ground ball in front of the second base in a row. He gave up a straight walk to Oh Ji-hwan, but he struck out Chun Sung-ho swinging and finished his pitching.
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Moon Dong-ju effectively tied LG batters by throwing 41 fastballs up to 158km, 24 fork balls of 143km, 13 sliders of 141km, and 16 curves of 133km.
After the game, Moon Dong-ju said, "I feel so good, it's a really important game today, but I feel better because I caught it. I felt especially strong that I would never lose today." I thought it would be nice to show my will well, but I'm happy that the team won."
The tie in the sixth inning was regrettable. Moon Dong-ju said "I was disappointed with the leadoff batter's walk. It was actually powerful. Still, I didn't think the result was bad, and after that, I thought it would be good if the team scored and won."
He has two wins and no losses in the second half and an ERA of 1.38, which is very good. When asked why he was good in the second half, he cited his strong mentality. "The team keeps playing in important situations and those games seem to make me a little stronger. I think I had a good time because I like that kind of situation more."
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
