'Diaz, Park Byung-ho, Davidson'

Yoon Seong-bin (26), a 9-year veteran fireballer of the Lotte Giants in professional baseball, faced batters in recent games. The commonality is that they are former and current home run champions.

Samsung's Edwin Diaz is a slugger leading the league with 27 home runs this year. Diaz alone has overwhelmed the league with more than 20 home runs this year.
Samsung's Park Byung-ho is a local slugger who has dominated the league. He hit 3 home runs in 2 games when they faced each other, and Park Byung-ho's name is always among the league's home run records with 6 total championships and 50 home runs for two consecutive years.

NC's Matt Davidson was the home run king last year, hitting 46 home runs, marking the first player to exceed 40 home runs in the league in four years, and he has hit 15 home runs this year.

Yoon Seong-bin successfully retired all the challenging hitters he faced in his last two appearances. He met batters recognized for their power in the league consecutively. On the 22nd, he entered as a relief pitcher in the 7th inning while trailing 3-6 against Samsung, throwing fastballs at 157 km/h and 158 km/h to Diaz and Park Byung-ho, both resulting in pop outs to center field. He also struck out Ryu Ji-hyeok, recording a scoreless inning. The subsequent bottom of the 7th resulted in a big inning where the batters scored 6 runs, allowing Yoon Seong-bin to celebrate a victory for the first time in 7 years.

Then, just three days later, on the 25th, he took the mound again against NC in Changwon. The score gap was similarly wide at 2-7. In the 8th inning with two outs and a runner on second base, he took the mound after Park Jin. He had to face Son Ah-seop, and then Davidson. He initially threw a 154 km/h fastball to lead-off batter Son Ah-seop, which resulted in an infield hit off the shortstop. Although it was a poorly hit ball, the course allowed it to become an infield hit.

He then faced the home run king Davidson from last year. The first pitch was a high inside fastball at 155 km/h that went foul, and the second pitch, also a high fastball at 155 km/h, went foul. Yoon Seong-bin leveraged Davidson's bat to gain a favorable 2-strike count. He then threw a 139 km/h slider that induced a weak swing. Even though there was no swing, it entered the strike zone. The deceptive pitch resulted in a 3-pitch strikeout.

This year, he showcased impressive pitching in the Futures League and had his first-team return. On May 20, he ambitiously started against LG at Sajik. However, he struggled, with 4 hits, 6 walks, 1 hit batter, 2 strikeouts, and 9 earned runs over 1 inning. His focus was shaken due to issues with the pitch com system. However, it was a desperate opportunity that he wanted to cling to. Manager Kim Tae-hyoung contemplated how to utilize Yoon Seong-bin, and after sending him back to the Futures League, he gained new experiences by pitching short innings in the bullpen.

Since returning to the first team on the 13th, Yoon Seong-bin has finally been finding his direction. On the 15th, he pitched ⅓ inning scoreless against SSG, followed by a scoreless inning with 1 strikeout and a victory against Samsung on the 22nd, and then pitched ⅓ inning with 1 hit and 1 strikeout without giving up a run on the 25th. He has achieved three consecutive scoreless games without walks. Above all, the opposing batters were not easy.

There are still not enough samples and experience to assign significant roles in the bullpen. However, the accumulation of Yoon Seong-bin's personal success is encouraging. There will surely be times of trial once again. As the experiences of success accumulate, the possibility of gaining confidence and rapidly recovering and overcoming challenges will also increase.

The Lotte Giants are happy with their high-ranking performance, while also watching the explosive potential of promising players that all members of the team have expected and devoted great effort to since the first draft in 2017.

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