Choi Won-joon (29, Doosan Bears) did not have a 159 km/h fastball. However, in the ‘power confrontation’, it was not pushed at all.
Choi Won-joon started in an away game against the Hanwha Eagles in the regular season of the 2023 KBO League held at Daejeon Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park on the 18th and recorded 1 hit, 2 walks, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts and no runs in 7 innings. He pitched perfectly, not giving up a single hit until the 6th inning, and faced a crisis in the 7th, but escaped on his own and showed an ace-like appearance. He recorded the highest speed of 141 km per hour in a fastball, and the average speed was 138 km per hour.
On this day, Choi Won-joon’s opponent was Moon Dong-ju, who broke the KBO league’s highest pitcher’s speed. Having previously recorded 160.1 km/h (based on Sports Two Eyes), he pitched a good pitch with 2 hits, 4 walks and 8 strikeouts in 5 and 2/3 innings that day. His fastball top speed reached 159 km (based on Trackman). Compared to Choi Won-joon’s average speed, there was a difference of about 20 km per hour.
However, Choi Won-joon’s pitching on this day was by no means inferior to Moon Dong-ju’s. Rather, he was much more stable, attacking the strike zone aggressively and overpowering Hanwha’s lineup.
On this day, he turned all four batters from the first inning to the first batter, Chae Eun-seong, into outfield floating balls in the beginning of the second inning. The main weapon, the high fastball and slider, flew in and out of the strike zone without mercy, and the Hanwha batters’ attacks did not work. After striking out Brian O’Grady for the first time with a slider, he fiercely attacked the left and right sides of the strike zone in a confrontation with Choi Jae-hoon, and finished the second inning with a looking strikeout. 토토사이트
Choi Won-joon’s sprint continued in the 3rd and 4th innings. He gave up a straight walk to lead batter Kim In-hwan in the third inning, but the follow-up hitter Park Jung-hyun caught it on a foul fly, and follow-up hitters Moon Hyun-bin and Noh Soo-gwang struck out. In the 4th inning, Jung Eun-won also struck out looking for an aggressive pitch by throwing 4 strikes out of 5 pitches, and center hitters Noh Si-hwan and Chae Eun-seong threw them back into the strike zone to induce a floating ball in the outfield.
A crisis came to Choi Won-joon, who cruised with only one walk (6th inning No Soo-gwang) until the 5th and 6th innings. Continuing the no-hit march, he finished the record challenge with a heavy hit from lead batter Noh Si-hwan in the 7th inning. The problem was the score, not the record. In a situation where the score was 0-0, even if only one goal was conceded, the defeat could have been recorded. To make matters worse, Noh Si-hwan ran to second base during Choi Won-joon’s wild throw, and ran to third base when Chae Eun-seong, the follow-up hitter, was caught with a floating ball by center fielder.
A situation in which a run is lost even if only one ball is hit in play. However, Wonjun Choi was not shaken. O’Grady, who was having trouble coping with a breaking ball, struck out again with a slider. He then hit Jae-Hoon Choi with a four-pitch and faced a crisis with two outs on first and third base, but with only one pitch from Kim In-hwan, he got a ground ball from the first baseman and succeeded in pitching 7 scoreless innings. 105 total pitches.
Choi Won-joon’s mission was up to the 7th episode. Doosan entered the bullpen fight with setup man Jeong Cheol-won taking the mound in the 8th inning in a 0-0 situation with no win or loss conditions.