By his own admission, it was the best fastball of his debut.
Doosan’s top rookie, Kim Taek-yeon (19), struck out three straight batters with nothing but his fastball in a bases-loaded, two-out situation. The pitch and guts were impressive.
Kim took the mound in the top of the seventh inning of a 5-3 win over KT in Jamsil on Nov. 11. It was his third straight start after pitching against Kiwoom on the 9th and 10th. It was his first three-game start. It didn’t start out well. He gave up a leadoff single to Choi Sung-ho and a double down the third base line to Hwang Jae-gyun. In no time, he was on second and third. One hit and the game was tied.
That’s when Kim showed off his power. He faced Park Byung-ho, the pinch-hitter, and threw five straight pitches for a swinging strike. As if he wasn’t even thinking about the two-on-three situation, he drove a 150-kilometer fastball into the zone and followed it up with a powerful five-pitch high fastball.
The strikeout show wasn’t over. Shin followed up with another strikeout, this time on a fastball. The second, third, and fifth pitches were missed, leading to a 3B-2S full count, but Shin was unfazed. The sixth pitch, a 149-mph fastball, was on the high side of the plate. Shin’s bat spun away from the pace. Back-to-back swinging strikes.
That wasn’t the end of it either. He struck out Oh Yoon-seok. After his first-pitch slider broke, he threw three fastballs down and away as if he had a plan. A 149-kilometer fastball hit him in the stomach, and a 151-kilometer fastball cleared the outer boundary. The fourth, a 150-kilometer fastball, found the stomach again. Oh tried to get his bat on the ball but couldn’t keep up with the pace. A swinging strikeout recorded the third out. With each strikeout, Kim pumped his right fist in the air. It was a powerful yet understated gesture.
From Park Byung-ho to Shin Bon-ki to Oh Yoon-seok. Kim struck out three straight batters with 15 pitches. Fourteen of them were fastballs, except for one slider to Oh Yoon-seok. Of the 14 fastballs, the only two that even grazed the batter’s bat were a four-seamer to Park Byung-ho and a first-pitch fastball to Shin Bon-ki. He managed to 토토 get his bat on it, but only for a foul. Kim literally threw an “untouchable” pitch. After surviving the crisis, Doosan scored a run in the bottom of the seventh and another in the eighth to win 7-3. Doosan, which had won five straight games, defeated KT, which had also won five straight games, to win its sixth straight game.
After the game, Kim said, “I think today was the best pitch I’ve pitched since I made my debut,” adding, “The fastball I threw in the 2-3 pitch situation was definitely the best. When asked if he felt overwhelmed facing the KBO’s leading slugger, Park Byung-ho, he said, “I didn’t think about the batter. I just looked at the catcher,” he said, adding, “I thought, ‘I have to keep him off the board. His fastball was so good that he didn’t have to think about other pitches. “I just tried to change my location up and down while throwing the fastball, and I think it worked well,” Kim said.
Manager Lee Seung-yeop also praised Kim. He praised left-hander Lee Byung-heon (21), who came in with runners on second and third in the top of the fifth inning and pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, saying, “The future of Doosan, Lee Byung-heon and Kim Taek-yeon, showed amazing guts.” “I want to applaud them for daring to attack the strike zone even when there are runners on base,” Lee said.
