KIA Tigers pitcher Yoon Young-chul wants to fire the last flame of the Rookie of the Year competition with achieving eight wins this season. Of course, the player himself waved his hand, saying, “I gave up my desire for the Rookie of the Year.” Yoon Young-chul was so relaxed that he gave words of blessing to his junior Hwang Joon-seo (Jang Chung-go), who played for the youth team together last year. Yoon Young-chul started against the Munhak SSG Landers on September 2nd and contributed to his team’s 12-4 victory with seven hits (one home run), five strikeouts and three runs in five innings.
On this day, Yoon Young-chul took the starting mound in cooperation with catcher Han Joon-soo. Yoon Young-chul cruised without losing a point until the second inning, but began to falter somewhat from the end of the third inning. KIA hit a heavy hit by leadoff hitter Kim Sung-hyun in the bottom of the third inning and allowed follow-up hitter Lee Heung-ryeon to chase 4-2 by hitting a two-run home run over the left wall with a distance of 105 meters. 스포츠토토킹
After two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, KIA faced a crisis again by giving up a heavy hit and second base steal to Oh Tae-gon. Subsequently, follow-up hitter Kim Sung-hyun hit a timely RBI left-handed hit, creating a situation in which he was chased by 4-3 points. Yoon Young-chul took the mound in the bottom of the fifth inning with a 4-3 lead, struck out leadoff hitter Choo Shin-soo, and gave up a bunt hit to the Jihoon Choi. However, Yoon Young-chul met the requirement for eight wins of the season by catching Choi Jung and Herredia with second baseman fly balls and right fielder fly balls, respectively.
KIA, which missed an additional chance to score two outs and a full base in the top of the sixth inning with no points, 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 clinched 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 in the season, is starting to see his first 10 wins in his debut.
Yoon Young-chul is currently competing with Moon Dong-joo for the Rookie of the Year award. Moon Dong-joo pitched in 23 games (118.2 innings) this season, recording 8 wins, 8 losses, 3.72 95 strikeouts, and 7 quality starts. Moon Dong-joo is preparing to join the national team at the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games after starting the Jamsil LG Twins match on September 3. In fact, Moon Dong-joo’s appearance in the remaining regular season is expected to be difficult.
If Yoon Young-chul achieves 10 wins of the season and improves pitching indicators during Moon Dong-joo’s Asian Games hiatus, competition for the Rookie of the Year could fall into the fog. Nevertheless, Yoon Young-chul stressed that he gave 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 the Rookie of the Year award.” I just want to play my role steadily without getting hurt at the given opportunity to take the mound. It’s harder to get greedy. In the last match against Hanwha (against Moon Dong-joo), he also put some strength into his body. The coach also advised me a few days ago not to try to strike out one batter and one batter. “That word helped me achieve eight wins,” he said.
Yoon Young-chul is showing competitiveness to first-tier hitters while maintaining an average fastball speed of 130km/h. Starting with the nomination of rookies and going through spring camps and exhibition games, the issue of arrest continued to follow, but Yoon Young-chul has been playing a full-time starting rotation since his first season with his own weapons, command and game management skills.
Yoon Young-chul said, “Anyway, the first thing to do is to take my ball and prevent the opposing hitters from hitting with a regular hit as much as possible.” My pitching method is to take away the timing of the opponent’s batter and avoid the center of the swing spot with one batter and one batter with a more sophisticated control. Listening to the story of the arrest makes me conscious. I have to raise my speed someday, but I don’t intend to change it too urgently. There are more days to play than the day of baseball, so I will try to raise it little by little after the end of this season. “The coaches also said that now you can throw as you want,” he nodded.
Yoon Young-chul is considered a strong candidate for the Hanwha Eagles’ No. 1 overall nomination, and he also gave words of blessing to Hwang Joon-seo, who is currently being transferred to the youth baseball team and will participate in the tournament. The two players, who have something in common as the “biggest left-handed fish” by a year difference, 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 regret 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 result was not good. Still, you can get an opportunity to develop further in such a process. I don’t think Junseo’s results from the competition are important right now. There are a lot more days left 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. “My wish is to come to the KBO League next year and do better than now,” he said with a smile.
