“(Oh) Seung-hwan, did you see your brother?”
The game was lost, but there was a clear gain. The Doosan Bears have a smile on their face once again in the form of Kim Taek-yeon (19).
Doosan lost 2-5 in a special match against the SoftBank Hawks at the PayPay Dome in Fukuoka, Japan, on March 3.
The difference in quality between the KBO and NPB was evident. Doosan’s starting pitcher Kwak Bin gave up two runs on three hits and two walks in two innings.
Doosan got one run back in the top of the fourth inning on a home run by Yang Ji-hyun.
In the bottom of the fourth, Kim Dong-joo singled off leadoff hitter Masaki Mimori and got Takashi Umino to fly out, but the runner on second advanced to third.
Doosan brought up left-hander Lee Byung-heon. 토토사이트 He struck out Yuto Kawamura on a fly ball, but the runner from third came home. Yuki Yanagita followed with an infield single and Gensuke Kondo walked.
Doosan put runners on first and second with two outs.
Doosan’s closer is Kim Taek-yeon, who was drafted by Doosan in the second round (2nd overall) of the 2024 KBO First-Year Player Draft out of Incheon High School. Doosan certainly made a statement of pride by signing him to a contract worth 350 million won, the same amount as Hwang Jun-seo (Hanwha), the No. 1 overall pick.
In a game against the Seibu Lions at the Miyazaki Sunmarine Stadium on March 27, Kim proved why Doosan is counting on him to be its next closer.
Kim took the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning with the score tied 4-4 and allowed the leadoff batter to reach on a fielding error, but then got the next out.
One out, one hit, and runners on first and third. Kim struck out the Japanese batters in succession with a 150-kilometer fastball. On the 24th, he pitched a perfect first inning with three strikeouts against Softbank’s second team.
Crunch time again. At the plate was Hotaka Yamakawa, a three-time NPB home run king (2018, 2019, 2022).
Kim’s guts shone through.
She drove the ball into the strike zone, forcing Yamakawa to foul out to the catcher.
Kim came back in the fifth inning and got a fly ball and a ground ball before inducing a strikeout against Tomoya Inoue. It was Doosan’s first strikeout of the day.
After the game, Yang said, “Kim Taek-yeon is still young, but I think he can go to the big leagues if he grows up well. I hope he does well.” “He doesn’t look like a 19-year-old. He throws his own ball. I can see (Oh) Seung-hwan playing like an older brother. I think he’s one of the best rookies I’ve seen recently.”
After the match,
Kim said, “I tried to play like I’ve been playing. I think it was a good idea to be confident. I didn’t know if I was going to go up in the clutch, but they trusted me, so I threw hard to repay that trust. (Jang) Seung-hyun caught it well, so I felt good.”
“When I went up in the clutch, I didn’t think about the other batter, I just tried to throw my ball. When I came down from the plate, my brothers told me that I was a former home run hitter, so I was honored.”
Kim continued, “I threw a lot of curveballs and sliders, and when I was warming up, I practiced a lot of splitters, but Seung-hyun told me that my curveball was good, and I threw three pitches in a row with a slider partially, and it worked, but the fourth pitch I threw was after 2S, and when I threw a changeup, the timing wasn’t right, so I just looked at the strike zone and threw it, and it was good. It was a good game because I got something out of it.”
Kim Taek-yeon
Kim Taek-yeon, who heard Yang Ji’s comment that he reminded him of Oh Seung-hwan, said, “It’s a great compliment for me. I’m more honored that Yang Ji, who has played with Oh Seung-hwan, said that. Oh Seung-hwan is a legend in Korean baseball, and I’m honored just to be compared to him.”
According to a Japanese news agency, 사설 토토사이트 Kim’s fastball sped up to 2550 RPM. That’s similar to SoftBank’s Pil Seung-jo. Kim said, “I’ve been practicing filling the ball since I was young. Now, I throw with a little more pressure. I think it’s because I’ve been practicing since I was young that it’s working so well.”
Kim said, “Looking at Japanese players, they definitely don’t strike out much. When I saw the timing of their pitches after 2S, I realized that they are definitely professionals. It makes me curious about Korean hitters. I can’t wait to play in an exhibition game or regular season game to feel it and see what it’s like to get hit.”