We've overcome all the great waves! Miracle's spirit has been revived...PS achievement for 2 consecutive years, the fruit of Lee Seung-yeop
We've overcome all the great waves! Miracle's spirit has been revived...PS achievement for 2 consecutive years, the fruit of Lee Seung-yeop
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The Doosan Bears confirmed their advance to the postseason with a 10-5 victory over the NC Dinos in the final home game held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 24th. Last year, they entered autumn baseball for the second consecutive year.
Doosan, which finished ninth in 2022, broke up with Kim Tae-hyung, who led the team for eight years, and appointed Lee Seung-yeop. There were also voices of concern due to his lack of leadership experience, but Lee led Doosan to its first advance into fall baseball in two years by raising its ranking to fifth in 2023.
Lee Seung-yeop, who is entering his second year, said he would go higher than last year.
Notably, he started by minimizing foreigners` variables. He renewed his contracts with Raul Alcantara, who had 13 wins (nine losses) last year, and Brandon Waddell, who had 11 wins (three losses) as a substitute. He seemed to have a clear "one-two punch" for foreigners.안전놀이터
In addition, Henry Ramos, who left KT Wiz in 2022 due to injury after hitting three home runs in 18 games, was recruited.
It was likely to go stably, but all the "bad news" that could occur to foreign players came at once.
Alcantara, who was expected to be an ace, left the team with a record of 2 wins, 2 losses and an ERA of 4.76 in 12 games due to an elbow injury. He wanted to see his doctor in the U.S. again, although the results of three local medical examinations came out okay after suffering elbow pain. The team gave Alcantara everything, and the U.S. doctor's examination was no different from what they saw in Korea. However, Alcantara did not regain his old form and packed his bags.
Jordan Balazovic was newly joined in place of Alcantara, but he did not meet expectations with 2-6 losses and a 4.34 ERA in 11 games.
Brandon has cruised through June with seven wins, four losses and an ERA of 3.12 in 14 games this season. However, he has yet to be heard from fans due to his scapular injury. As he thought he could come back in six weeks, he made him consider a short-term substitution rather than a substitution. However, after pitching in the first bullpen, pain recurred and he returned to square one. Recently, he started playing catch at a short distance by catching the ball, but is in a difficult situation to return to the base of his career in fall baseball.
Keisho Shirakawa, who replaced Brandon as a substitute for short-term foreign player, was a promising pitcher for SSG Landers. Excluding that he allowed eight runs (seven earned runs) in one ⅓ inning at the game against Lotte, he garnered great performance with an ERA of 2.49 in four games. However, he was not a huge contributor for Doosan. He showed sluggish performance in seven games with two wins and three losses and an ERA of 6.03. He signed an extension contract on Friday after completing his first six-week contract, but managed to play only one game due to his injury.
Ramos had a .35-ri 10 home run in 80 games, but he eventually broke up at the end of July as his pace dropped noticeably in the second half and led to a "work-esque controversy." Jared, who came on behalf of Ramos, became Doosan's foreign farming team as he became a filial son with 338 10 home runs in 36 games.
The lackluster performance of foreign players was painful. Those who are supposed to play the role of consecutive losers have not been able to break the losing streak, but rather have played a role of lowering the mood.
To make matters worse, Korean starters also faltered. Choi, who played the final role as a starter last year, was not able to come until July due to fatigue fracture. Choi Won-joon and Kim Dong-ju each started the season as opening starters, but they have shown some ups and downs. The biggest comfort for Kwak was that he played 161 ⅓ innings in 29 games, recording 14 wins, 9 losses and an ERA of 4.40.
The collapse of the starting lineup, which began with the departure of the foreign "one-two punch," was forced to be transferred to the bullpen. Lee Byung-hun, Kim Taek-yeon, Hong Gun-hee, Lee Young-ha, Choi Ji-gang, Kim Kang-ryul, and Park Chi-guk played more than 50 games.
The poor performance of the starting team had no choice but to affect the fielders. The defensive innings became longer and the physical burden continued on both defense and offense. In addition, Doosan, which is dominated by veteran players in their mid-30s, did not have many points, so it was not easy to replace them in the middle of the game and manage their physical strength.
To make matters worse, it became the team with the least number of rain cancellation games. The rain cancellation, which was a good enough, returned to the doubleheader, becoming the team that played the most games until August.
There were more unfavorable factors. As Oh Jae-won, a retired Doosan player, was found to have asked a fellow player to take a substitute prescription for sleeping pills when he was an active player, eight players were banned from playing in the second division games. Among them were backup resources for the 1.5th division.
Although it was not immediately visible, their absence was clearly felt in variable situations such as mid-season injuries.
Doosan, which had all the bad news in its history, clearly displayed a winning move in the middle of the season and created a miracle. Critics pointed out that it is an overworked team as bullpen pitchers often took the mound and engaged in multiple innings. As Doosan secured victory in the middle of the season, however, Doosan maintained its ranking above 5th place since May.