Asian Games gold medalists return to their teams and join the final regular season spurt

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang Hyeon-gu = Stars returning with gold medals from the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games are contributing to their team's last-minute spurt.

pitcher Kwak Bin (Doosan Bears), the most valuable player (MVP) of the national team that led Korean baseball to its 5th consecutive Asian Games victory, Park Jun-soon (Doosan, batting average 0.500), Kim Joo-won (NC Dinos, 0.444), Jo Hyung-woo (SSG Landers, 0.417), who were on fire throughout the tournament, and Park Young-hyun (KT Wiz), who played as the national team's closer, have left behind the joy of winning the gold medal and are now wrapping up the regular season. Get ready.

Leading KT reduced the magic number to advance directly to the Korean Series to 8 with 10 games remaining.

If the three pitchers Park Young-hyun, So Hyun-jun, and Oh Won-seok return and raise the mound, KT can quickly reduce the magic number in the five games played against the KIA Tigers and Lotte Giants this week.

In the two weeks that KIA sent key players Kim Do-young, Park Jae-hyun, and Seong Young-tak to the national team, KIA recorded 4 wins and 2 losses.

With the three returning in good health, there is hope for a comeback in the third place match to be played against the LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul this weekend. 4th place KIA trails 3rd place LG by 2 games.

It is of interest to see when Kim Do-young's home run clock, which stopped after nasal surgery, will return in the regular league.

While Kim Do-young stopped at 40 home runs, Austin Dean (LG) and Sam Hilliard (KT) hit 39, putting the competition for the home run king in the fog. Kim Do-young's 40th home run hit on the 8th of this month.

Doosan, ranked 5th, is 5 games behind KIA with 9 games left in the regular season, so it appears that they will have to prepare for the wild card series first.

Gwak Bin and Choi Min-seok's one-two punches, who saved the national team with their brilliant fightbacks in the Asian Games, need rest and physical strength management first.

As of the 27th, when 670 games were played, this year's professional baseball attracted 11,827,140 spectators, approaching 12 million for the second consecutive year.

If the current trend is maintained in the remaining 50 games, the new attendance record of 12,312,519 set last year can be broken in just one year.

◇ Professional baseball weekly schedule (29th - October 4th)

Stadium 29th 30th 1st 3rd 4th Jamsil NC-Doosan KIA-LG Incheon LG-SSG Suwon Lotte-kt Daejeon Kiwoom-Hanwha Daegu Hanwha-Samsung Doosan-Samsung Gwangju kt-KIA Busan Kiwoom-Lotte Changwon SSG-NC