Doosan Bears head coach Lee Seung-yeop praised the team’s homegrown ace Kwak Bin for his humility. He believes that a player’s attitude of respect for his opponents is his greatest weapon.
Doosan will play its 14th game of the season against the Hanwha Eagles of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on Wednesday. Riding the momentum of their 11-4 victory the day before, they will look to continue their winning streak and secure a three-game weekend series.
One of Doosan’s mainstays is Kwak-Bin, who will be starting on the mound. Kwak has been one of the best starting pitchers in the league this season, going 9-4 with a 2.46 ERA in 15 games. With a win tonight, he will reach double-digit wins in his first season as a professional. 메이저사이트
Coincidentally, it was also against Hanwha that Kwak-Bin earned his ninth win of the season. In his last start against Hanwha, Kwak-Bin pitched seven innings of two-hit ball, allowing one run on one hit, one walk, and one hit batter while striking out 10.
There’s one more interesting observation. Kwak-Bin will be facing the same opponent as the previous day, Hanwha’s top prospect Moon Dong-Joo.
In his second year as a professional, Moon is having a successful first full season with a 6-7 record and a 3.39 ERA in 19 games. Against Doosan on April 1, he did his job with five innings of five-hit ball, one home run, four strikeouts, and two runs, but he and Kwak Bin shared the yoke of defeat.
Kwak Bin praised Moon Dong-joo for his good-natured competition in the postgame interview, saying, “I thought he was a better pitcher than me, so I pitched with the mindset of learning from him, and I enjoyed it very much.”
Before the game on December 12, coach Lee Seung-yeop told reporters about Kwak Bin’s comments about Moon and smiled with satisfaction. “The best weapon is humility,” he said, “I don’t know if (Kwak-Bin) has that in his heart, but I think I would have said the same thing.”
“It’s good to see that they respect each other because Kwak Bin became the winning pitcher (against Hanwha on the 1st). I think he thinks he’s the best,” he laughed, then emphasized, “I think Kwak-bin’s attitude is that of a normal professional player, and his performance is really good.”
Lee also expressed his satisfaction with the team’s current pitching staff. Doosan’s 1-3 starting rotation of Raul Alcantara, Brandon Waddell, and Kwak-Bin has been running smoothly, giving the team a big advantage in the fierce standings battle.
“Having a stable one-two-three rotation of Alcantara, Brandon and Kwak-Bin is really helping our starting rotation,” said Lee Seung-yeop. “Alcantara hasn’t won the last three games, but he’s been pitching a lot of innings and doing his job,” he added.