South Korea's Moon Dong-ju heads to the dugout after his inning during the fourth inning of the 2023 Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) match between South Korea and Australia at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday afternoon.
South Korea's starting pitcher Moon Dong-ju talks to catcher Kim Hyung-jun after giving up a solo shot to Australia's Alex Hall with no outs in the top of the sixth inning of the baseball game between South Korea and Australia during the 2023 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, Saturday afternoon.
Moon Dong-ju pitched well against Australia in the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) but couldn't get over the hump and was removed in the sixth inning.
Moon started the first game of the preliminary round of the APBC against Australia at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on Nov. 16 and threw 102 pitches in 5⅔ innings, allowing five hits, one home run, five walks, four strikeouts and two runs.
Down 1-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Moon was replaced by Kim Young-gyu to finish the game. He pitched well, limiting the damage to a minimum, but was unable to get support from his offense and was in danger of taking the loss.
Moon Dong-ju pitched well at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, his national debut, and established himself as the next ace of the team. In the gold medal game against Chinese Taipei, he pitched six shutout innings to help South Korea win the title.
A month after the Asian Games, Moon was called up to the national team again, this time to pitch against Australia. With the top two teams from the four-team tournament qualifying for the final, the first game was crucial.
After proving his mettle at the Asian Games, Moon took the mound at Tokyo Dome with confidence.
It didn't start well. He threw 153 mph to first baseman Liam Spence to get the ball rolling, but he couldn't seem to find a groove on the slightly elevated Tokyo Dome mound. He eventually got Spence to ground out to short.
He then got Aaron Whitefield to fly out, but a wild pitch to Rixon Wingrove advanced the runner to third. A shaken Moon walked Wingrove and then gave up a single to Clayton Campbell.
In the top of the second, Wingrove got the first two outs but gave up back-to-back singles to Brilly Knight and Spence, but a strong shoulder catch by Yoon in right field of Knight, who was trying to steal third base on Spence's hit, kept the inning scoreless.
In the bottom of the second, the Tigers tied the game with a run to ease the pressure on Moon.
In the third inning, they settled down. He gave up a leadoff bunt single to Whitefield, but retired Wingrove, Alex Hall, and Campbell in order.
In the fourth, he walked Williams with one out, but didn't allow another hit and got out of the inning unscathed. In the fifth, he struck out two for his first career triple play.
After throwing 84 pitches in the fifth, Moon took the mound in the sixth. However, he gave up a 110-meter solo shot to leadoff hitter Hall.
He retired the next two batters, but gave up a walk to Williams to load the bases. Manager Ryu Jung-il then made a decision and replaced him with left-hander Kim Young-kyu.
Kim struck out Mitch Edwards on a fielder's choice to end the inning. 19가이드03
