“The closing position is very difficult.”
Substitutions, substitutions, and more substitutions? Doosan Bears manager Lee Seung-yeop’s tough decisions have taken a turn for the worse. The new closer, Jung Chul-won, has been struggling.카지노사이트
In mid-August, Lee made the decision to change his closer. Doosan’s closer this season was Hong Gun-hee. However, after a series of shaky performances in the second half of the season, Lee made the decision to switch closers. It wasn’t easy, but he wanted to take the pressure off of Hong and stabilize the team’s back end.
Jung Chul-won is the new closer. A hard-throwing pitcher with a strong heart. He’s been Doosan’s closer since last year, his rookie season, and is a reliable pitcher who is willing to take chances in tight situations.
However, Chung has had some shaky games since switching to the closer’s role. He collected two saves in four games, but gave up runs in three of those four games. Against the Kiwoom Heroes on the 24th, he pitched 1⅓ innings of one-run ball with four hits, one strikeout, and one walk to earn a difficult save, and against SSG on the 26th, he wasn’t in a save situation but gave up three runs on three hits in a clutch situation to give the opposition the lead. Hong pitched a perfect first inning.
The next day, against SSG, Jung Chul-won, who came on in the top of the 10th inning with the score tied at 5-5, gave up three runs on three hits and was the losing pitcher as Doosan lost 5-8. It was an inning where the tide turned in favor of the opposition. Chung unleashed a fastball that touched 150kmph, but he struggled with the count as his pitches struggled.
The truth is, it’s hard to change your finish so easily in such a short period of time. You have to think about the impact on other aspects of the game. Coach Lee laughed and said, “The closing position is very difficult. There’s no next pitcher behind me, and it’s always a close game. I think (non-closers) feel a little more relaxed when they think there’s a next inning,” he said.
Of course, Chung is one of the more daring pitchers in the Doosan pitching staff. His fastball has recently reached a maximum velocity of 153 kilometers, so he is more concerned about his pitches than his delivery. Manager Lee Seung-yeop also said, “We just changed our closer, so there’s no going back. We just have to win the game in the position we’re in. The closers are the last pitchers in the game, so they have to take the responsibility and go into the game with a stronger mindset.”
