Park Joon-young of the Doosan Bears started as the third baseman and the ninth batter in Game 11 of the season against the Kiwoom Heroes of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 9th and flew with three hits (one home run), three RBIs, and one walk.
Park Joon-young, who didn’t have a bad feeling from the start of the game. He got off to a good start by hitting a hit against Kiwoom starter Jung Chan-heon in his first at-bat in the second inning. The good flow continued. Park Joon-young entered his second at-bat in the bottom of the fourth inning with one out and runners on first and second base, leading 2-0, and this time again, he scored a hit against Jung Chan-heon. And luck followed this process. Kiwoom left fielder Park Joo-hong attempted a diving catch on Park Joon-young’s line-drive ball, which led to a two-run triple as the ball fell back.
The best result came in the third at-bat. Park Joon-young hit a solo home run over the left fence in the bottom of the sixth inning when he was 토토꽁포인트 chased 6-2, hitting Kiwoom’s changed pitcher Ha Young-min’s fifth 137km slider. This leaves only a double left in the “Hit for the Cycle.” However, he walked in his last at-bat and failed to lead to a record as no more batting opportunities were provided.
However, as a result of Park Joon-young’s three hits and three RBIs, Doosan was at the forefront of winning eight consecutive games in 1,851 days since the Gocheok Nexen Heroes (currently Kiwoom) on June 6, 2018 and the Jamsil KT Wiz match on June 14, 2018. There have been several three-hit games since taking the professional stage, but it must have led to the most memorable day of all the games.
He knew that if he hit a double in his fourth at-bat, he would complete the “hit for the cycle.” Wouldn’t it have been disappointing. Park Joon-young said, “I didn’t mean it much. “I’m very proud that it helped the team win consecutive games,” he said adding, “I knew that there was only a double left.” The brothers and coaches kept talking. However, when I entered the batter’s box, I didn’t think about that, and I just wanted to get on base,” he said with a smile.
After hitting a home run on this day, he even received a “no interest” ceremony. Park Joon-young said, “I thought the older members would do an indifference ceremony if I hit a home run, and I tried to enjoy it so that the atmosphere wouldn’t be disturbed even if the ceremony came in as much as I could,” adding, “It wasn’t a right pitch, and I thought it was out because it was too high.” However, I thought I could move on when I saw the defender keep going back,” he said.
Park Joon-young received the NC Dinos’ first nomination in the 2016 rookie draft. He was a pitcher at the time of joining the team, but he underwent elbow surgery in his first year of joining the team, and after completing his military service as a social service worker, he changed his position to a batter. Since then, he has been excluded from the list of protected players when he underwent shoulder dislocation surgery in October last year while gaining experience in NC, and was selected by Doosan as a compensation player for Park Se-hyuk, who moved to NC through a total contract of 4.6 billion won.
Park Joon-young, who had been focusing on rehabilitation even after moving to Doosan, began playing in the second division in late May and was called to the first division for the first time on the 7th after hitting four home runs in the last 10 games. He also reported his first hit as a pinch hitter in the first game of the transfer, and showed a good game enough to aim for a hit for the cycle on the 9th. Wouldn’t he have been impatient when he was not given a chance in the first division after moving to Doosan.
He said, “I wanted to prepare myself perfectly and come up. Luckily, the team was in a winning streak, and I was also confident and positive that I came up with a good record,” he said adding, “I talked a lot with coach Junghoon Lee, Lee Do-hyung, and Lee Young-soo and got help.” They have helped me a lot mentally and technically. “I think it’s all thanks to the coaches and coaches that have produced such good results now,” he said.
If Na Kyun-an (Lotte) has a successful case of switching from a batter to a pitcher, Park Joon-young can be a successful case of changing from a pitcher to a batter. And “transfer” can be a catalyst for the potential to bloom. “At first, it was difficult to accept (the transfer), but it was not difficult to adapt because I met many people. Coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “Let’s hang in there for a long time.” “I think of the transfer as a turning point,” he stressed.
Doosan’s starting third baseman is Huh Kyung-min, and it is not easy to aim for the starting position right now. However, having a junior who hits and rises can lead to a “synergy effect.” Park Joon-young said, “The competition for the starting lineup in my position is greed. (Huh)I just think that I won’t let Kyung-min feel the vacancy when he rests,” he said. “It will be difficult to maintain the current good sense, but if I try, I think I will have a good record at the end of the season.” “I will not hurt the area I operated on again, and I will help the team’s fall baseball and championship in the first division,” he stressed.