He was so calm and bold that he wondered if it was his first autumn baseball game since his debut. His ceremony that caught everyone’s attention was a bonus. Attention is focusing on whether Kwak Do-gyu (20), who won two of the four wins in the Korean Series by the KIA Tigers, will show off his “strong heart” in the Premier 12 as well.
Kwak Do-gyu, who graduated from Gong High School and was selected by KIA as the 42nd pick in the fifth round of the 2023 Rookie Draft, took the mound in 14 games in the first year (2023) and left a disappointing 8.49 ERA. It was attractive that he was a left-handed fireballer who sprayed 152km/h fastballs, but his ball control was jagged enough to record 12 pitches (10 walks, 2 balls that fit his body) with 14 strikeouts in 11 ⅔ innings.
Relying on Kwak’s potential, Kia sent him to the Canberra Cavaliers of the Australian Baseball League after the end of last year’s regular season. In December, the team sent him to the Driveline Baseball Center in Seattle to conduct customized programs.
The effect was immediately apparent. In his second year, Kwak pitched in 71 games, and posted four wins, two losses, two saves, 16 holds, and an ERA of 3.56, making him the core left-handed bullpen of Kia. His strikeouts per nine innings (10.80 in 2023 and 10.35 in 2024) remained similar, and his walks per nine innings decreased from 7.71 to 5.50.
Although he often sent out runners with walks, he showed off his powerful pitching with the third-lowest hit rate among pitchers who played more than 50 innings (0.207, No. 1 SSG Landers Cho Byung-hyun 0.197 / No. 2 Hanwha Eagles Joo Hyun-sang 0.206) and the second-lowest slugging rate (0.298, No. 1 Doosan Bears Kim Taek-yeon).
Kwak, who emerged as the core of Kia’s bullpen in just one year, displayed even more stellar performance on the Korean Series stage for the first time. Kwak, who took the mound after Jeon Sang-hyun in the first game on Sunday, pitched perfect pitching with two strikeouts in one ⅔ inning. As KIA, which was trailing 0-1, came from behind to win 5-1, Kwak was delighted as the winning pitcher in his first appearance in the Korean Series. Kwak, who also took the mound in the second game that followed, pitched in the eighth inning with one out and one on the first base, and neatly finished the inning by allowing no run in the ⅔ innings.
Kwak, who rested in Game 3, also contributed to his team’s 9-2 victory by pitching one hit and no run in one inning in Game 4 on Sunday. In Game 5 on Sunday, when his team won the title, Kwak took the mound in the top of the sixth inning with a score of 5-5, and recorded one hit and two strikeouts in one inning. KIA came from behind to win the Korean Series by 7-5, and Kwak was honored as the second winning pitcher.
Kwak Do-gyu, who showed brilliant pitching against the Samsung Lions’ batting lineup, who is the “No. 1 team home run” on the first stage of the Korean Series, was impressed by fans with his unique ceremony. In Game 4, he treated Lewin Diaz with a double play and then turned his hat sideways. In Game 5, he performed a performance to untie the button and show a shirt with Lee Eui-ri’s jersey number and name as he headed to the dugout after organizing the inning. It was a meaningful ceremony to be with Lee Eui-ri, who was out for the season due to elbow surgery in June, on the Korean Series stage. 토토사이트
Kwak Do-gyu, who enjoyed the joy of winning his first Korean Series stage after his debut, is now preparing to play for the national team with the national flag. Kwak Do-gyu was named along with his teammate Choi Ji-min on the 35-member list of team Korea training convened by the KBO Power Reinforcement Committee on the 11th. A total of four left-handed pitchers were selected on the list, including starting resources Son Joo-young (LG Twins) and Choi Seung-yong (Doosan Bears), who were eliminated due to injury.
Lee Eui-ri, whom Kwak Do-gyu held in his heart, is a regular member of the Korean national team, who was selected for the national team three times from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 to the 2023 World Baseball Classic and the 2023 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC). At the Tokyo Olympics, he started in two games and recorded 18 strikeouts in 10 innings, tying for first place in the category with Japan’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LA Dodgers). In the WBC, he recorded ⅓ innings (three walks and one strikeout) against Japan, and in the APBC tournament, he took the mound as a starting pitcher against Japan and suffered a loss despite his good pitching of two runs in six innings.
Kwak Do-gyu is likely to play a very important role in this Premier 12 tournament, although his role is different from that of Lee Eui-ri, the starting pitcher. The importance of the bullpen has grown as Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha) and Won Tae-in (Samsung), who showed good performance in the national team recently, and Son Joo-young, who showed the best performance among left-handers in Korea this season, were eliminated. As manager Ryu Joong-il also paid attention to Kwak Do-gyu’s impressive pitching in the Korean Series, chances are high that he will join the final entry. Attention is focusing on whether Kwak Do-gyu, who showed off his prowess as “Mr. Zero” in autumn baseball, will prove once again that he is “strong heart” with his relentless pitching on the international stage.
