Kim Taek-yeon (19) of the Doosan Bears in professional baseball is supporting the team by playing the most important role in the team even though he is a rookie pitcher. 스포츠토토
Kim Taek-yeon won the “2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League” SSG Landers at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 9th with one walk and three strikeouts in two innings. The two teams took the mound in relief in the eighth inning, when the two teams were tied 11-11, and threw 30 pitches in two innings.
Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop said in an interview before the game on Tuesday, “(Kim) Taek-yeon was amazing yesterday. We have to rest today. Since (Choi) Ji-gang and (Lee) Young-ha are missing, (Lee) is the only player who can play the role of a must-winner. Byung-hun also had to give Landers a little more rest because he pitched many innings this season. And we have lost eight consecutive games since last year. We had to quit once, so we had no choice but to let Taek-yeon go for two innings.”
Doosan, which was unable to take the mound as Kim Taek-yeon rested, ended up allowing only three hits (one homer) and two walks, two strikeouts and four runs in two ⅓ innings as Choi entered the starting rotation due to the injury of fifth starter Choi Jun-ho, but the bullpen, which led to Park Chi-guk (one run in two ⅓ innings), Kim Kang-ryul (one run in one ⅓ inning), Hong Gun-hee (one run in one ⅓ inning), and Lee Byung-hun (one ⅔ in one inning), kept the victory with good pitching. Lee Byung-hun won his first save since his debut.
Without Kim, Doosan won, but all bullpen pitchers had to play more than one inning. This is an example of how much influence Kim has on Doosan. “We have about 30 games left. I’m considering leaving Kim to five out if it’s too long,” manager Lee Seung-yeop said. “Due to the number of pitches, we have to give Kim a break the next day. If it becomes too frequent, it’s not good to see him as a team or as a person. If Ji-Kang plays a bullpen session today (the second time), he will have some leeway.”
Kim Taek-yeon, who joined the Doosan Bears as a first-round pick in the 2024 rookie draft, has had an amazing debut season with 48 games (51 ⅓ innings), 3 wins, 1 loss, 4 holds, 13 saves and an ERA of 1.93. As a rookie pitcher, however, there are constant talks about the need to manage innings.
“I originally thought about managing the team around 50 innings. I thought it would be better not to exceed 50 innings, but we also need to see what the team is in. As I progress to becoming a closer, I am managing better,” Lee said. “I am keeping an eye on him in the training part, and (Kim) Taek-yeon is also a very sincere player, so I haven’t had any damage yet. Of course, since he is a young pitcher and it is his first full-time season, it is not good to throw as many balls as possible. However, in fact, his role is the most important and he is a good pitcher except for the starting pitcher in our team. Although he is a manager, he has no choice but to throw as many innings as possible,” he stressed the importance of Kim.
Doosan has maintained its fourth place in the league with 58 wins, two draws and 53 losses and a .523 winning percentage this season. It is seven games behind the top-ranked Kia, two games behind the second-ranked LG, and 1.5 games behind the third-ranked Samsung. Although the game gap with the top-ranked team is slightly wider, the team is still close to reaching the second-ranked team. With only 31 games to go, Doosan should start an all-out war.
Manager Lee Seung-yeop said, “I need to relax a little bit, but I can’t afford to relax. We have 14 pitchers on the roster because we don’t have enough pitchers, and now the fielders are overloaded. We have no choice but to do this. We feel sorry for Taecyeon,” and asked her to cheer up a little more.
