Doosan Bears reported their first win in six games in the Miyazaki Education League in Japan. Starting pitcher Kim Yoo-sung’s good pitching shone.
Kim started the game against the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in the 2024 Phoenix Education League held at Ikime Stadium in Miyazaki, Japan, on Sunday, and led the team to victory by pitching well with 91 pitches, three hits, three strikeouts, and one run in six innings. Doosan won the game 9-4, recording one win, two draws and three losses in the Education League.
Kim Yu-sung boasted his outstanding ball power. He was powerful enough to shoot up to 154 kilometers of fastballs, and his control was well achieved overall, including curves, sliders, and folk balls. Kim Yu-sung overwhelmed Japanese hitters with better ball power than he threw in the KBO League this year, raising hopes for the next season.
Kim Yu-sung also drew attention with his outstanding performance in the Miyazaki Education League last year. He pitched in four games and recorded 15 innings with an ERA of 0.60. When he was playing in Korea, he had a hard time because of his poor control, but when he faced demanding Japanese batters, he scored zero. In last year’s Education League, he showed his advanced pitching performance by allowing only six walks while striking out 14. At that time, the maximum speed of his fastball was 150 kilometers, but this year he increased it by about 4 kilometers. Officials from Doosan, who watched the Education League at the time, said in unison, “The MVP is Kim Yu-sung.”
After experiencing the Education League for the first time last year, Kim Yoo-sung said, “Unlike Korean batters, Japanese batters cut their hair a lot and hit short to get on base at bat. You have to pay more attention to breaking balls, fastball tunneling and points to let batters swing. I tried to pay more attention, and I think that was good,” adding, “I felt a lot while watching Japanese pitchers.” Since Japanese pitchers are so good, I watched them carefully from the catch ball. I think I watched the pitch tempo and how to run the mound carefully. I felt a lot of things that I learned, so I think I have grown to a higher level.” He continued his remarkable performance in the Education League this year.
Kim Yu-sung participated in the 2023 Rookie Draft Early Draft while he was a student at Korea University, and wore Doosan’s uniform as the 19th pick in the second round. Doosan immediately expected it with full power, but in its debut season, it swallowed up its disappointment with only six ⅓ innings and an ERA of 9.95 in seven games. The number of walks per nine innings reached 17.05.
Doosan expressed hope that Kim Yu-seong will continue his good pitching skills this year, which rebounded from last year’s Education League. Although he showed better pitching performance this year than last year, he had ups and downs like any other rookie pitcher. In 17 games (seven starts), he recorded 1-2 with 28 innings and an earned run average of 6.43. He still has a lot of walks per nine innings at 7.71.
This year, 꽁머니 suffered from the ups and downs of even domestic starters, while foreign one-two punches have not contributed to the team’s strength due to injuries and sluggishness throughout the season. Kwak Bin became the king of the game with 15 wins (nine losses) in 30 games, recording 167 ⅔ innings and an ERA of 4.24. Choi Won-joon started the team’s second-most 24 games and was responsible for 110 innings, with 6-7 losses and an ERA of 6.46. Kim Yoo-sung needs to make the starting lineup a little more solid next season with Choi Joon-ho, Choi Seung-yong, and Kim Min-kyu. Doosan has recently found many young and promising bullpen pitchers such as Kim Taek-yeon, Lee Byung-hun, Choi Ji-gang, and Choi Jong-in, but the development of starting pitchers is relatively slow.
Meanwhile, after Kim Yoo-sung went down the mound, Lee Kyo-hoon (1 run in 1 ⅔), Kim Tae-wan (1 run in 1 inning), and Kim Jungwoo Kim (1 run in 1 inning) continued to throw to keep the victory.
The batters had long and short hits, producing hits in all the starting players. Hong Seong-ho, who started as the fifth batter and left fielder, had two hits, one out, and one strikeout, and two RBIs in three times at bat. Lim Jong-seong, the seventh batter and third baseman, had one hit and two RBIs in four times at bat, and Park Min-joon, the ninth batter, had one hit and two RBIs in three times at bat. Jeon Da-min, the second batter, and Kim Dong-joon, the eighth batter, played multi-hit games side by side.