"How can I hurt my shoulder?" Hanwha Moon Dong-ju said, "Maximum 156km → 3 innings perfect." "78 Billion Man" Um Sangbaek also pitched 3 perfect innings [KBO Exhibition Game Review]

*This content was translated by AI.

The maximum speed is 156 kilometers per hour.

The arrest itself is not an important time, but the story was a little different for Moon Dong-joo (23, Hanwha Eagles). The 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) participation, which was desperately dreamed of due to a shoulder injury, was also canceled, raising concerns, but he made an all-out effort to announce that there was no problem from the first exhibition game.

Moon Dong-ju started the 2026 KBO exhibition game against SSG Landers at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 15th and pitched a perfect pitch with one strikeout and no outs in three innings.

Earlier last month, Moon Dong-ju complained of shoulder pain during Hanwha spring camp and returned home early for treatment. National team coach Ryu Ji-hyun, who judged that it would be difficult to raise his condition to 100% in line with the WBC schedule, excluded Moon Dong-ju from the list.

Son Joo-young (LG) was diagnosed with inflammation, not muscle damage, and the possibility of Moon Dong-ju joining was predicted as he left the final group match due to an injury, but manager Ryu Ji-hyun said, "I just threw a blue-and-white match once. I'm telling you, this is not the time for a build-up, he said. "The degree of throwing in the blue-and-white match and the intensity of throwing in this important situation are completely different. It could lead to major injuries. I can't help but take that into account," he said.

WBC's dream eventually fell through, but Moon Dong-ju was more committed to rehabilitation. In the match against Cheongbaek on the 10th, he recorded two hits, three walks, three strikeouts and one run in two innings with a fast ball of up to 155km/h. The restraint was raised, but it was not completely satisfactory.

However, this day was different. It was a more burdensome stage than the match against Cheongbaek, but he pitched a powerful ball and a sense of stability.

SSG set up the starting lineup with Park Sung-han (striker), Guillermo Herredia (left fielder), Choi Jung (third baseman), Kim Jae-hwan (designated hitter), Ko Myung-joon (first baseman), Kim Sung-wook (right fielder), Kim Jihoon Choi (middle fielder), Cho Hyung-woo (captor), and Jung Joon-jae (second baseman).

Moon Dong-ju started off in a good mood in the top of the first inning by grounding Park Sung-han to the second base, and also caught Herredia with a ground ball. All balls were less than 150 kilometers per hour, but SSG hitters could not easily hit the center of the bat.

He induced Choi Jung to hit a fly ball to left field, but he played when the runner settled on second base due to a catch error, but he finished the first inning by catching No. 4 hitter Kim Jae-hwan with a ground ball to second base.

In the second inning, Ko Myung-joon was induced to hit a ground ball to the third base, but he was allowed to get on base once again due to a throwing error, and Kim Sung-wook's at-bat came out to the foil, and the runner headed to the scoring position once again. Nevertheless, he did not falter. He hit a ground ball to the third baseman, who tied the runner up, struck out a swing and miss with a fork ball to Jihoon Choi, and even Cho Hyung-woo hit a ground ball to the third baseman.

At the bottom of the second inning, the batters responded. Hanwha, which formed the lineup with Lee Jin-young (center fielder), Choi In-ho (right wing), Han Ji-yoon (left wing), Jang Kyu-hyun (designated hitter), Kim Tae-yeon (first baseman), Hwang Young-mook (second baseman), Lee Do-yoon (striker), Heo In-seo (four), and Choi Yoo-bin (third baseman), took the lead with a preemptive solo shot over the left fence of Heo In-seo in the bottom of the second inning.

Moon Dong-ju, who took the mound again in the third inning with a one-run lead, returned Jung Joon-jae to right field. The body warmed up and became more restrained. In Park Sung-han's at-bat, he sprayed a 156km ball, the highest speed of the day, from the first pitch, and sprayed a 150km-long ball to turn it into a fly ball to center field. Heredia also induced a pitcher's ground ball from the ball count 0-2 to the outside 156km fastball to finish the day's pitch.

He finished three innings in a total of 38 pitches on the day, of which 24 were strikes. The most encouraging thing is restraint. It is said that there is no need to stick to the arrest itself because it is still an exhibition game period, but Moon Dong-joo injured his shoulder, so the current arrest is an indicator of how much he has recovered from his physical condition.

There was no way to target Moon Dong-ju, who raised his physical condition quickly enough to spray up to 156km. Moon Dong-ju, who threw 23 fastball, overwhelmed SSG batters by mixing sliders (7 pitches), curves, and folk balls (4 pitches).

Amid Moon Dong-ju's performance, Hanwha's batting lineup solidified its victory by adding one run with Kim Tae-yeon's sacrifice fly following consecutive hits by Han Ji-yoon and Jang Kyu-hyun in the sixth inning, and Lee Jin-young's walk and steal in the seventh inning, followed by Choi In-ho's hit, Jang Kyu-hyun's two-run timely hit, Hwang Young-mook's pushout walk with the bases loaded, and Lee Do-yoon's grounder.

On the mound, Um Sang-baek, who took the mound after Moon Dong-ju, pitched 36 pitches in three innings, giving two hits and one strikeout, and from the seventh inning, Kim Do-bin, Park Joon-young and Kang Kyung-woo took the mound in turn to block each inning.

In SSG, starter Kim Gun-woo threw 62 pitches in five innings, allowing three hits (one homer) and one walk, four strikeouts, and one run, but the bullpen collapsed and became a losing pitcher.

In the lineup, Heo In-seo hit two home runs and hit three RBIs, Choi In-ho shot three times in five at-bats, and Jang Kyu-hyun helped his team win with two hits and two RBIs in four at-bats.

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*This content was translated by AI.