Autumn remained the same. Although the Doosan Bears suffered from elimination, 19-year-old closer Kim Taek-yeon's fall baseball debut impressed fans.스포츠토토

Kim Taek-yeon appeared as a relief pitcher at the top of the seventh inning in Game 2 of the wild card decision against KT Wiz in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO postseason at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 3rd.

Doosan faced a crisis with two outs and runners on the first and second bases in the top of the seventh inning when it was losing 0-1. Any more runs would mean a loss. Doosan, which was on the brink of collapse, took the winning move. It put closer Kim Taek-yeon early on.

The opponent Kim Taek-yeon faced was Mel Rojas Jr. Rojas hit a multi-homer, including a three-run final, in the fifth-place match against SSG Landers on the 1st, and also played a starting role in drawing the first run by hitting a left-handed double in the top of the sixth inning. He is a former MVP of the 2020 regular season and led KT's "miracle" with a batting average of .329 32 home runs and 112 RBIs in 144 games this year.

However, Kim remained unshakable while facing a big hitter named Rojas. Throwing fastballs with the maximum speed of 152 km per hour, Kim engaged in a tight race with full count, and threw fastballs with a maximum speed of 150 km per hour for the eighth time to induce swings and misses, strikeouts, and successfully ended the inning.

Kim's pitching was not rough. Kim struck out leadoff hitter Jang Sung-woo with a fastball of 150 kilometers per hour in the top of the eighth inning, but induced Oh Jae-il to ground out to the first base and Oh Yoon-seok to fly out to the right field to end the inning without losing a run. When Kang received a hit after throwing a 137 kilometer-per-hour changeup, Kim focused more on his fastball and slider balls, taking the mound in the ninth inning as well, displaying the prowess of a "high-end finish." He had a left-handed hit after one out, but nothing happened.

In the regular season, Kim Taek-yeon, who also drew attention for her courage and heavy pitching that was not like her 19-year-old age, once again proved her potential to grow into a closer representing Korean baseball in the future by throwing 38 pitches in two ⅓ innings to prevent two hits, no outs, and no strikeouts.

Doosan ended up losing 0-1 even though Kim Taek-yeon pitched two ⅓ innings, but the lineup did not explode. Doosan, which suffered two consecutive days after losing 0-4 in the first round of the wild card decision, eventually failed to advance to the semi-playoff and left the fall baseball stage.

Although Doosan failed to advance to the semi-playoff, it was clear that it found a big finishing pitcher named Kim Taek-yeon this year. In this year's regular season, Kim pitched 65 innings in 60 games, and is considered the top rookie award winner with 3 wins, 2 losses, 19 saves, 4 holds and an earned run average of 2.08. Listed in the opening entry, Kim took the role of a must-win group, and eventually grew quickly as he took the role of a closing pitcher to protect the back door.

He never hesitated to play multi-inning games when his team was in need of him. This season, Kim had 17 multi-inning games. Professional closers were Park Young-hyun (25) of the KT Wiz, Kim Won-joong (19) of the Lotte Giants, and Joo Hyun-sang (18th). Ranked eighth in relief with 19 saves this year, Kim is expected to earn more saves next season if he starts as a relief pitcher from the opening. It is no exaggeration to say that Kim's stellar appearance in this season was a huge accomplishment for Korean baseball beyond Doosan.