“My brothers felt more sorry for me than I did last time
In his first two starts of the season, he was torched for 11 runs in eight innings combined. He was sent down to the Futures League and returned just over a month later, but in his first game back, he was again dominated. In three innings, he gave up five runs on seven hits.
With an ERA of 13.09, Doosan’s Choi Won-jun took the mound against the Jamsil NC on the 25th. It was clear that he wasn’t expected to pitch well. Moreover, his opponent was Daniel Castano, a foreign first-round pick who had a one-run ERA until that day.
It was a reversal. Choi Won-jun pitched his best game of the season to shut down the NC bats. He pitched a near-perfect 6.2 innings, allowing one run on two hits. He struck out six and walked just two. After his second win of the season, captain Yang Seok-hwan doused Choi with water, telling him to celebrate after all he’s been through.
“More than me, my brothers (Yang) Ji-won, (Kim) Jae-hwan, and (Yang) Seok-hwan felt sorry for my poor performance,” Choi said, adding, “They wished for me to get better soon and supported me.”
Choi Won-joon was calm despite his surprisingly strong performance. “There was nothing different,” he said, “I was psychologically hounded by my poor start, and I felt like I was continuing last year’s slump. I doubted myself a lot, but I believed in my efforts.” He didn’t forget about his catcher, Kim Ki-yeon. “In the last game, I had a good lead and I apologized that I couldn’t throw it,” Choi said, adding, “I also believed that Ki-yeon was fine and would do well. I think it was a good result because she gave me a good lead,” Choi said.
“Won-jun Choi pitched brilliantly,” said Lee Seung-yeop, who also praised the pitcher. “(Choi) did his job perfectly, keeping both hits and walks to a minimum,” Lee said, adding, “I expect him to continue to pitch as well as he did today.”
In fact, Doosan suffered another major setback earlier in the day. Foreign ace Raul Alcantara was removed from the first team roster due to right elbow soreness. In the 사설토토 midst of a string of poor performances and injuries to established starters, the pillars of the starting rotation have been shaken up. That’s why Choi’s performance was so welcome.
Choi has been Doosan’s pitching coach this season. It was hard to feel bad for him when he was dropped from the rotation due to poor performance, especially for his junior Kwak-bin. Kwak-bin was the only one of Doosan’s opening five starters to stay in the rotation, but he still couldn’t get his first win. In six starts, he lost four games without a win.
If anyone can understand how Kwak-Bin feels, it’s Choi Won-Joon. Last year, Choi finally got his first win on May 16, in his seventh start of the season.
“He was chasing one win a little too much,” Choi said, “and I followed that last year, so my performance got worse and I fell into a slump.” “He has a good ball, he doesn’t have any other problems,” Choi said, adding, “I’ve been telling him a lot that you shouldn’t chase wins, but do what you can do on the mound, and if you’re a starter, do things like quality starts, and you’ll definitely have good days.”