Should we be worried about two hits or two strikeouts?

Should we be worried about two hits or two strikeouts?

The Doosan Bears played their final game of the season against the NC Dinos at Changwon NC Park on April 28th. Doosan, which had already clinched fourth place, gave a lot of opportunities to players who hadn’t played in the first team before, sowing the seeds for next season.

At the same time, the team was also preparing for the postseason, which begins on October 2. After finishing the regular season in fourth place, Doosan will begin its fall baseball journey with the wild card game.

Last year, Doosan also qualified for the postseason by finishing in fifth place. The wild-card game requires the fourth-place team to win one game and the fifth-place team to win two games. Doosan had a short fall experience, dropping the first game to the NC Dinos. This year, they’ll be on slightly more favorable ground, so they’ll be eager to erase the pain of a year ago this season.

The math is more or less done for the batters. There are some concerns about the health of Yang Ji, who has a collarbone injury, but the outline of the best lineup is in place.

The problem is pitching.

Doosan’s starting rotation has been shaky this season due to injuries to foreign pitchers. Raul Alcantara and Brandon Waddell, who started the season together, have both disappeared from the roster. Brandon’s injury replacement, Keisho Shirakawa, signed a 15-day contract extension after pitching in Week 6, but then left due to injury.

Alcantara’s replacement, Jordan Balazovic, has been shaky, going 2-6-1 with a 4.26 ERA in 12 games.

With Brandon’s return unclear, 파워볼실시간 Doosan was left to ponder how to utilize Balazovic, its only foreign pitcher in the postseason.

In four September starts, Balazovic posted a 7.00 ERA. There are question marks about his reliability as a starter.

Balazovic is a hard-throwing pitcher who sits in the mid-90s and has a sharp forkball. It could be his best card to play in crunch time when he needs a solid strikeout.

The 28th was a test of Valazovic’s postseason utility. After two shutout innings from starter Kim Yoo-sung, Balajovic took the mound in the third inning.

Hope and anxiety coexisted.

He got off to a shaky start, allowing a leadoff single to Kim Sung-wook, but then struck out Kim Hyung-joon for the first out. A throwing error by the first baseman put runners on first and second with Han Seok-hyun at the plate, and a low forked ball to Park Min-woo was hit into center field. The run was down, but not out. He struck out Kim Joo-won on three pitches and then got Jae-hwan Chun to ground out to shortstop. His total pitch count was 23.

The strikeout of Kim Hyung-joon after the first hit and the three-pitch strikeout of Kim Joo-won after the run was exactly what Doosan had hoped for, but the two hits and the inability to dominate were troubling.

Meanwhile, Doosan used a total of 10 pitchers on the day.

After starters Kim Yoo-sung (two scoreless innings) and Balajovic (one run, one hit, no walk), Lee Young-ha (two scoreless innings), Jung Chul-won (one scoreless inning), Choi Jun-ho (zero runs), Park Ji-ho (⅔ scoreless innings), Park Jung-soo (⅓ scoreless innings), Park Chi-guk (one run, two hits), Lee Kyo-hoon (⅔ scoreless innings), and Choi Jong-in (⅓ scoreless innings) took the mound to check their health.

It was a good time to review the various mound resources for the immediate postseason, training league, and final camp.