If this is enough, wouldn’t ‘Tiger Tiger’ be the 1st starter, not the 5th pick? KIA Tigers pitcher Yoon Young-cheol led the team to 2 consecutive victories with 6 wins of the season with 6 scoreless innings. If he gets 10 wins in the future season, he will now have an advantage in the Rookie of the Year race. Yoon Young-chul started against the Lotte Giants in Gwangju on July 29 and contributed to the team’s 4-1 victory with 1 hit, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks and no runs in 6 innings.
Yoon Young-chul, who took the starting mound that day, continued a stable pitching flow from the first inning. Yoon Yeong-chul started cleanly with a tripartite including one strikeout in the top of the first inning, then made a series of triplets innings until the beginning of the second inning.
In the beginning of the 3rd inning, Yun Young-cheol was hit by Kim Min-seok, a leading hitter of the same age who was competing for the Rookie of the Year title. 토토 Yoon Yeong-cheol prevented a run from the first out and second base crisis that led to a sacrifice bunt, striking out Shin Yun-hoo and Yoon Dong-hee with a swinging miss and a shortstop grounder, respectively.
Until the beginning of the 4th inning, Yoon Young-chul blocked it with a tripartite offense, and the KIA lineup, which had been silent until the 3rd inning, rallied. At the end of the 4th inning, KIA scored first as Socrates’ hit led to opponent first baseman Han Dong-hee’s catch error in the chance to safely run first and second base, created by walks by lead batters Na Seong-beom and Choi Hyung-woo.
KIA added one more point with Kim Seon-bin’s sacrifice fly ball in the second and third base opportunities that followed. After that, KIA escaped to 3-0 with Park Chan-ho’s sacrificial fly ball in the chance to get one out and bases loaded with two walks.
Yoon Young-cheol, who received the scoring support, gave a walk to lead batter Noh Jin-hyeok in the beginning of the 5th inning, but induced Han Dong-hee to double play and relieved himself. And Yoon Young-cheol met the requirement for a 6-win season by catching Kim Min-seok as a floating ball in center field.
At the end of the 5th inning, KIA ran away with a solo home run by Na Seong-beom. Yoon Young-cheol went to the mound in the beginning of the 6th inning and treated Son Seong-bin and Shin Yun-hoo with beatings. Afterwards, Yoon Dong-hee was allowed a straight walk, but Yoon Young-chul achieved a quality start by catching Gudrum as a floating ball in center field.
The KIA bench put Lim Ki-young on the mound ahead of the defense in the beginning of the 7th inning and started the bullpen. They gave up one point at the beginning of the 7th inning, but KIA put up Lee Jun-young and Jeon Sang-hyun at the beginning of the 8th to prevent additional runs. And finishing pitcher Jeong Hae-young caught Jun-woo Jeon and Jin-hyeok Noh with a fly ball and a ground ball, respectively, to end the game in the early ninth inning crisis with one company on first and second base.
Yoon Young-cheol got on the mound 17 days after his relief appearance against the Samsung Lions in Gwangju on July 12 (1.2 innings, 1 hit, no runs). It was a day when we could see how powerful Yoon Young-chul’s ball was, having properly recharged his stamina in the middle of his debut season.
Above all, Yoon Young-cheol has achieved the best performance among the team’s starting lineup that digested this week’s starting rotation. Both foreign pitchers played only 5 innings, and Yang Hyeon-jong (5.2 innings, 4 runs) and Lee Eui-ri (6 innings, 3 runs) also had poorer pitching performance compared to Yoon Young-chul. It was the result of Yoon Young-cheol’s appearance, which is safe to say that he was the first starting pitcher for the Tigers, simply by looking at his performance.
Yoon Young-cheol is also evaluated as a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year this season. Yoon Young-cheol pitched in 15 games (74.1 innings) this season and recorded an average ERA of 6-4, 3.75 with 43 strikeouts and 26 walks with a WHIP of 1.28. Among the contenders for rookie of the year, pitcher Mun Dong-ju (17 appearances, 88 innings, 6 wins, 6 losses, ERA of 3.48, 78 strikeouts, 32 walks, WHIP of 1.26), a pitcher for the Hanwha Eagles in his second year of service, is considered the strongest opponent.
In the end, the key is how competitive Yoon Young-chul will show 10 wins in the future and how competitive he will be in indicators such as innings and ERA. It is also a variable that Moon Dong-ju joins the team for the upcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou. In the case of Yun Young-chul, who was not selected for the Asian Games national team, he may have a chance to play the Rookie of the Year race in the remaining games. I wonder if Yoon Young-chul will be able to lift the Rookie of the Year trophy only once in his life along with 10 wins in his debut season.