Kwak Bin announced the return of the ace. At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, he resolved the regret of returning without throwing any balls due to an unexpected injury on the mound in Jamsil. Kwak Bin had high expectations that Korean coach Ryu Joong-il was selected as an ace along with Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha), but things got twisted because he had a sore back ahead of the first group match against Hong Kong on the 1st. Kwak Bin won the gold medal thanks to his teammates, but he was uncomfortable in his heart.
Kwak Bin showed 200% of his skills on the mound again about a month after the Gwangju KIA match on the 18th of last month. He pitched six innings, 109 pitches, two hits, two outs, nine strikeouts, and one run, earning his 12th win (7 losses) of the season. He also recorded his 13th quality start this season.
As KIA batters continued to swing and miss on Kwak Bin’s slider, they persistently used the slider a lot. He threw 54 sliders alone, and it was effective enough to reach 41 strikes. He also mixed fastballs (35), curves (12), and changeups (8). Perhaps in the aftermath of the symptoms, the maximum fastball speed was 152km and the average speed was 146km, which was not good compared to the usual, but he overcame it with a slider. 스포츠토토
Kwak held on well until the third inning without allowing a run. He walked Kim Sun-bin after two outs in the top of the first inning, but stopped the flow by turning Socrates into a fly ball to center field. In the top of the second inning, he also walked Byun Woo-hyuk after two outs and allowed him to second base with a wild pitch, but ended the inning by striking out Kim Ho-ryeong. In the top of the third inning, he recorded his first three-and-out inning of the day.
He lost a point in the top of the fourth inning with a 3-0 lead, sending leadoff hitter Kim Sun-bin with a right hit to center field. In the next batter Socrates’ at-bat, he made a throwing error while trying to check first baseman Kim Sun-bin and became second base with no outs, and was hit by Socrates in left field and became first and third base with no outs. Lee Woo-sung was chased 3-1 by allowing a sacrifice fly to center field, but he overcame the crisis by not giving up a follow-up hit.
After losing a point, he quickly focused on increasing the out count. He struck out four as he recorded two consecutive three-and-out innings in the top of the fifth and top of the sixth innings. If he had struck out one more, he could have recorded his third 10 strikeouts this season, and he was replaced by Hong Kun-hee ahead of the top of the seventh inning.