Yoon Young-chul (20·KIA) was in Busan when KIA confirmed its regular season title on the 17th. He made his first real appearance against Lotte in the Futures League on that day. It was the last check to return to the first team.스포츠토토
Yoon Young-chul, who seemed to end the season after being diagnosed with a spinal fatigue fracture after early withdrawal due to back pain in the match against SSG on July 13, returned earlier than expected. He returned to the first division against Gwangju Samsung on the 23rd, six days after taking the mound in the Futures League and after KIA confirmed its regular season title.
Yoon, who has yet to completely pitch, pitched 40 pitches, and pitched 37 pitches during three innings, allowing one hit and three strikeouts. He made a successful comeback.
When asked, “If I had come back a few days earlier, wouldn’t I have been able to do the regular season victory ceremony together?” Yoon Young-chul laughed, “I’m a little disappointed, but we can do it together in the Korean Series.”
Yoon Young-chul is preparing to take the mound in the Korean Series. After rehabilitation, he originally planned to throw once as a middle pitch and once as a starter in the first division, but his starting position was empty as Eric Stout suffered a thigh hamstring injury and ended the season against Doosan in Jamsil on the 19th. KIA will have Yoon Young-chul take the mound twice instead of putting in a substitute starter.
Yoon plans to take the mound as a starting pitcher one more time to increase the number of pitches and start preparing for the Korean Series with his team. Kia Tigers coach Lee Bum-ho, who also values the “experience” of a talented young player, is keeping a positive stance on Yoon’s inclusion in the Korean Series entry. If he judges that Yoon’s ball power and physical condition are stable in the two matches, he will also join the Korean Series and use it as a starter.
Yoon’s commitment is the same. “I haven’t won the regular season title with him, but I just need to be in the position where I can win the Korean Series, so I’m going to work harder thinking that,” Yoon said. “I think playing in the Korean Series itself is a huge experience for my age, and I think it will be a huge experience to just stand on the mound and throw it under the pressure regardless of the position I’m assigned to.”
Yoon, who joined the team last year and was the only high school graduate who spent his debut season as a full-time starter, spent more than two months in rehabilitation for the first time. “Rehabilitation was very boring and I wanted to play baseball a lot,” Yoon said. “I kept on holding out thinking about the day when I was going to throw the ball. I kept watching the first team games. (Hwang Dong-ha, Kim Do-hyun and others) were all so good that I was able to comfortably prepare for the championship,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt anymore. I was very careful because it’s been a long time since I threw on the mound, but I was satisfied because I used my strength well and my breaking ball well.”
The first day after returning to the mound after a long time, the crowd at Champions Field was full. With 20,500 seats full, Yoon practiced for the Korean Series as the starting pitcher against Samsung, the second-ranked team in the regular season. “I don’t think a lot of spectators should change my performance, and I didn’t pay much attention on the mound,” Yoon said with a refreshing smile. “However, I felt good because the cheering sound was loud.”