Doosan Bears' homegrown ace Kwak Bin finally played his first game.
On the 24th, Kwak Bin started as a pitcher in a match against the 2025 Futures League NC Dinos held at the Icheon Bears Park, pitching 1⅓ innings without a hit, allowing 1 walk, striking out 2 batters, and recording no runs. He threw 29 pitches. Since it was his first actual game, he planned to throw about 30 pitches.
Kwak Bin ended the first inning with a three-up, three-down performance. He recorded his first out by striking out the first batter, Go Seung-wan, with a looking strikeout on the fifth pitch. Kim Se-hoon was out on a ground ball to shortstop, and Jo Hyo-won also ended the inning with a ground ball out to shortstop.
Kwak Bin, who threw 15 pitches in the first inning, took the mound again in the second inning. He struck out the first batter, Song Seung-hwan, with a looking strikeout on the sixth pitch after going to a full count. He allowed a walk to Ahn In-san on the eighth pitch after another full count. He was then replaced by Park Yeon-jun, who ended the inning by getting Park Joo-chan out on a double play to second base.
Kwak Bin appeared in 2 games during the spring training in March, pitching 4 innings and allowing 2 earned runs. After finishing the training, he took the mound as a starting pitcher against the Goyang Heroes in the Futures League on March 19, completing his final check with 5 innings pitched, allowing 1 hit, 3 walks, and striking out 6 batters without allowing any runs. However, after the match, he complained of pain in his left side and was diagnosed with damage to the left internal oblique muscle.
Kwak Bin faced a setback in his recovery process. He was scheduled to pitch in the Futures League on the 13th, but due to an accumulation symptom in his side, the game was canceled. After a week of recovery, he returned to make a perfect recovery before taking the mound in the Futures League game on this day.
In 2023, Kwak Bin had a record of 12 wins and 7 losses with an earned run average of 2.90 over 23 games. Last year, he recorded 15 wins and 9 losses with an earned run average of 4.24 over 30 games, sharing the title of winning pitcher with Samsung’s Won Tae-in. Doosan has fallen to 9th place as their homegrown ace Kwak Bin has been absent for 2 months since the start of the season, with a starting earned run average ranking 8th in the league (4.53).
Doosan manager Lee Seung-yeop noted in early May, “I am looking forward to Bin's return soon. If Bin's return date is clearly set, even though he is not here right now, just knowing the date will improve the team’s atmosphere.”
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