"Super awesome!"' Taiwan's Moon Dong-ju, who also drooled, gave no runs in 6 innings in his debut match with Japanese Sobang → Up to 155km of 'first win'

*This content was translated by AI.

Shirooshi (26, Softbank Hawks), nicknamed "Taiwan's Moon Dong-ju (23, Hanwha Eagles)", became the winning pitcher by showing off his overwhelming ball power in his debut in the first division of the Japanese professional baseball (NPB). It really showed off its potential to the extent that even the Los Angeles Dodgers showed interest.

Shirooshi started in an away game against the "2026 NPB" Rakuten Golden Eagles at Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan on the 1st, and led his team to a 6-1 victory by giving up three hits and six strikeouts in six innings.

The match attracted great attention as Shirooshi made his official debut in the Japanese first team. Although the weather was chilly with a wind chill of less than 10 degrees Celsius, the fastball in Shiluo City remained. He silenced Rakuten's batters by spraying fastball with a maximum speed of 155 kilometers. In the first inning, he showed confidence in cooking hitters only with a fastball without a breaking ball, and in the second inning, he completely stole the opponent's timing by mixing changeups.

According to multiple Japanese media, including Taiwan's China Times, Hideyuki Awano (62), a former pitching coach for the Yomiuri Giants who watched the game and currently serves as a J-Sports commentator, said, "The pitching mechanism is very flexible and soft. It looks like it uses only 80% of its power, but it sprays a scary ball. "From the batter's point of view, it will feel like he is losing his rhythm," he said.

Softbank coach Hiroki Kokubo also praised Shirooshi's changeup after the game, saying, "It's a changeup that falls like a fork ball." Shortly after the game, Shirooshi said, "It was my first appearance in Japan, so I completely trusted the catcher and threw it. I was able to win because of the fans who supported me even in the cold weather."

Xu Luo is considered the "Mun Dong-ju of Taiwan" and is a starting pitcher who is considered to have a big breaking ball with a fast fastball of up to 158 kilometers per hour. He started all 19 games of the Taiwan Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in the previous 2025 season and left a record of 5-7 with a 2.05 ERA. Since his team is a new team, he has only won five games, but the detailed indicators were very good. The average on-base allowance per inning (WHIP) was low at 0.81, and he had 120 strikeouts in 114 innings. On the other hand, there were only 14 walks. He was the No. 1 strikeout among Taiwanese pitchers in the CPBL in the 2025 season.

Multiple major league clubs, including the LA Dodgers, have explored the possibility of recruiting Shirooshi, who has truly conquered the CPBL, and NPB clubs have joined the recruitment race. In the end, Softbank, which made the condition of guaranteeing selection, had Shirooshi in November last year. The contract is also unprecedented at 1.5 billion yen (about 14.3 billion won) for three years.

Softbank is said to have invited Xuruo to show training facilities in advance at the time of negotiations. Softbank's choice, which recruited Shirooshi with all its heart, was not wrong with just one game.

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*This content was translated by AI.