[Anchor]
Doosan Bears' native one-two punch, Kwak 빈 and Choi Min-seok, are enjoying a historic season. A sweep of major pitching titles by a pair of native pitchers from the same team, a feat never seen in professional baseball history, is now within sight.
Reporter Yu Byeongmin has the details.
[Reporter]
Opposing batters swing and miss at blazing fastballs exceeding 160 km/h.
Last Saturday, Kwak Bin secured a convincing victory in a high-speed pitching duel against Kiwoom's An Woo-jin, allowing just 2 runs with 8 strikeouts over 6 innings.
Passing the baton the next day, Choi Min-seok led the team to a weekend series sweep with sharp two-seamers and cutters targeting the corners of the strike zone.
[Kwak Bin / Doosan Pitcher: I will strive to become a player with even more room for growth. Next year, I want to become a pitcher who can throw a greater number of innings.]
[Choi Min-seok / Doosan Pitcher: I hope to pitch even harder so we can reach higher places, including the fall postseason.]
Kwak Bin, the fiery fireballer, and Choi Min-seok, the precise control master, boast distinctly different styles, yet Doosan's native one-two punch is dominating the league this season.
Kwak Bin leads the league in ERA at 2.36 and strikeouts with 169, while Choi Min-seok tops the leaderboard in wins with 13 and winning percentage at 0.813.
While legendary aces like Sun Dong-yol or Yoon Suk-min have swept titles in the past, or foreign duos like Dustin Nippert and Michael Bowden have shared them, there has never been a single instance where a native one-two punch from the same team split the major pitching titles.
Kwak Bin, who has blossomed in his 9th season after enduring a long period of patience, and Choi Min-seok, the 20-year-old who has emerged as an ace in just his 2nd year since debut, have both earned national team selections and now dream of delivering gold-medal performances as the team's one-two punch at the upcoming Nagoya Asian Games.
(Video Editing: Ha Seong-won, Design: Kang Yoon-jung)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.