KIA Tigers pitcher Yoon Young-chul wants to make the final spark of competition for the Rookie of the Year with eight wins of the season. Of course, the player himself waved his hands, saying he had abandoned his desire for the Rookie of the Year. Yoon Young-chul showed a sense of relaxation that did not seem to be in his first year of joining the team, to the extent that he also gave words of blessing to his junior Hwang Joon-seo (Jang Chung-go), who played for the youth national team together last year. Yoon Young-chul started against the Munhak SSG Landers on September 2 and contributed to his team’s 12-4 victory with seven hits (one home run) and five strikeouts and three runs in five innings.
Yoon Young-chul took the starting mound with catcher Han Joon-soo on the same day. Yoon Young-chul cruised without losing a point until the second inning, but began to shake somewhat from the end of the third inning. KIA allowed follow-up hitter Lee Heung-ryeon to chase 4-2 after hitting a two-run home run over the left wall with a distance of 105 meters after hitting a heavy hit by leadoff hitter Kim Sung-hyun in the bottom of the third inning. After two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, KIA gave Oh Tae-gon a heavy hit and a steal to second base, facing a crisis again. Subsequently, follow-up hitter Kim Sung-hyun was chased by 4-3 by a timely RBI. 스포츠토토탑
Yoon Young-chul took the mound in the bottom of the fifth inning with a 4-3 lead and struck out leadoff hitter Choo Shin-soo before giving up a bunt hit to Jihoon Choi. However, Yoon Young-chul met the requirements for eight wins of the season by catching Choi Jung and Eredia with a fly ball to second base and a fly ball to right field, respectively.
KIA, who missed the chance to score an additional run with two outs and a full base in the top of the sixth inning, lowered Yoon Young-chul at the bottom of the sixth inning and immediately started the bullpen. When Lim Ki-young blocked the bottom of the sixth inning without losing a point, KIA ran away again with three points in the top of the seventh inning. Since then, KIA has sealed the game with Na Sung-bum’s two-run home run in the top of the eighth inning and Oh Sun-woo’s three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning. Yoon Young-chul, who won again in four games after achieving seven wins of the season, began to see his first 10 wins in his debut.
Yoon Young-chul is currently competing for the Rookie of the Year with Moon Dong-joo. Moon Dong-joo pitched in 23 games (118.2 innings) this season and recorded eight wins, eight losses, a 3.7295 ERA, and seven WHIP 1.31 quality starts. Moon Dong-joo started the game against the LG Twins in Jamsil on September 3 and started preparing to join the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games national team. In fact, Moon Dong-joo’s appearance in the rest of the regular season is expected to be difficult. If Yoon Young-chul achieves 10 wins of the season and improves detailed pitching indicators during Moon Dong-joo’s Asian Games hiatus, competition for the Rookie of the Year could also fall into the fog. Nevertheless, Yoon Young-chul stressed that he has given up his greed for 10 wins and competition for the Rookie of the Year.
Yoon Young-chul, who met with MK Sports on September 3, said, “Honestly, I don’t have much desire for 10 wins and Rookie of the Year award. I just want to play my part steadily without getting hurt in a given opportunity to take the mound. If I try to be greedy, it doesn’t work out. In the last match against Hanwha (opposite Moon Dong-joo), his body also put some strength into it. The coach also advised me to relax a few days ago and not try to strike out each batter. “That word helped me achieve eight wins,” he said. Yoon Young-chul is showing competitiveness in the first-tier batters while maintaining an average fastball speed of 130km/h. Starting with the nomination of a rookie, the issue of arrest continued to follow through the spring camp and exhibition games, but Yoon Young-chul has been playing a full-time starting rotation since his first season with his own weapons, commands and game management skills.
Yoon Young-chul said, “Anyway, with my ball now, the first thing to do is to prevent the opposing batters from hitting with regular hits as much as possible. My pitching method is to avoid the center of the swing spot of one batter’s bat with a more sophisticated control while taking away the timing of the opponent’s batter. I’m conscious because I keep hearing about the arrest. We have to raise the restraint one day, but we don’t intend to change it too quickly. There are more days to play than baseball, so I will try to raise it little by little after the end of this season. The coaches also said that you can throw it as you want now,” he nodded. Yoon Young-chul was considered a strong candidate for the Hanwha Eagles’ overall No. 1 nomination, and also gave words of blessing to Hwang Joon-seo, who is currently transferred to the youth baseball team and is competing. The two players, who have something in common as the “biggest left-handed fish” by a year, also played together for the youth national team last year. Hwang Jun-seo started against Taiwan in the preliminary round of the tournament on September 2 and left a disappointment with five hits, three strikeouts, and four runs (three earned runs) in 2.1 innings.
Yoon Young-chul said, “I saw the game record thrown by (Hwang) Jun-seo, and the results were not good. Still, you can get an opportunity to develop further in such a process. I don’t think Jun-seo’s results from the competition are important right now. There are much more days to play baseball in the future, so I hope you throw it more comfortably with the idea of having a different experience while facing baseball players from other countries. “I hope I can come to the KBO League next year and do better than now,” he said with a smile.
