Park Joon-young has come full circle from the NC Dinos, but will he be able to blossom in a Doosan Bears uniform?
Park Jun-young started at third base and batted ninth in the lineup for the Bears’ 11th home game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League against the Kiwoom Heroes at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Monday, going 3-for-3 with a home run, three RBIs, two runs scored, and one walk.안전놀이터
Park began his professional career with the first overall pick of the NC Dinos in the 2016 First-Year Player Draft. Initially a pitcher, Park showed promise in his first year, going 1-3 with a 6.95 ERA in 32 appearances. However, he underwent elbow surgery, and after returning from his mandatory military service as a social service worker, he switched to hitting.
In 32 games in 2020, Park hit .152, and the following year, he showed that he wasn’t bad as a hitter, hitting .209 with 57 hits and eight home runs in 111 games. His stint with the NC was short-lived, however. In October 2022, Park ended up on the operating table with a dislocated shoulder, and became the compensation player for Park Se-hyuk, who was sent to NC via free agency for a total of 4.6 billion won.
Park, who underwent surgery for a dislocated shoulder in October last year, began playing in the Futures League in late May after a long rehabilitation, and earned a call-up to the first team on July 7 after hitting .333 with 12 hits, four home runs, six RBIs, 11 runs scored and 11 runs batted in in his last 10 games. He was just in time to fill the void left by Heo Kyung-min, who had a bad back.
Park didn’t make the starting lineup on the first day of his call-up, but he ‘stood out’ as a pinch hitter, going 1-for-2 with a double and a run scored. On the previous day (August 8), he was unable to get a hit in his first start since joining the team, but on the ninth, he was given the chance to start again, and he took off.
Park’s bat was hot from the start of the game. With the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the second inning, Park hit a seven-pitch, 133-kilometer fastball off Kiwoom starter Chung Chan-heon into the left field seats. Unfortunately, he was caught trying to steal second and was thrown out at the plate.
The good feeling continued. Park stepped up to the plate again in the fourth inning with runners on first and second and a 2-0 lead, and he took advantage of Chung’s eight-pitch 129-kilometer slider for a line drive to left field. Kiwoom left fielder Park Joo-hong made a diving catch and was lucky that the ball went behind him. All of the runners before Park reached base, and he also reached third.
With two early hits, Park approached the “hit for the cycle” in his third at-bat. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning and a 6-2 lead, Park saw a five-pitch 135-kilometer slider from Kiwoom reliever Ha Young-min in the middle of the strike zone, spun his bat around and launched a solo home run over the left field fence. His first arch this season. With that, Park was one hit away from a “hit for the cycle.
However, the record was not to be. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the bases loaded, Park faced a new pitcher, Kim Sung-jin, who drew a five-pitch walk. No fifth chance for Park in the eighth inning, and with Doosan in control of the game, he was not given a chance to bat in the ninth inning, so his ‘record’ would have to wait. Still, it’s not a bad start for Doosan. Can we write a success story about a position switch?