It’s something the KIA Tigers haven’t seen in a while. Kim Do-young, 21, the “second Lee Jong-beom,” as he’s nicknamed, is fast approaching Tiger history with a performance reminiscent of Lee Jong-beom.
Kim went 1-for-4 with one home run and one RBI while starting at third base and batting third in the lineup for the visiting KT Wiz in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League regular season at Suwon KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, on Saturday.
KIA won its third straight game with a 3-1 victory over KT as starter Hwang Dong-ha pitched five innings of one-run ball and the offense exploded for 11 hits. With the sweep of KT, KIA retained first place with 41 wins, one tie and 28 losses.
The game was a tightly contested affair that was not decided until the very end. Kia scored one run each in the first and second innings, and KT scored one run in the third inning, but no further runs were scored. Kia’s bullpen of Kwak Do-gyu (⅓ innings), Jang Hyun-sik (⅔ innings), Jeon Sang-hyun (1⅔ innings), Choi Ji-min (⅓ innings), and Jung Hae-young (1 inning) was ironclad, allowing only one hit and one walk. The bats, on the other hand, were unable to hold on to the precarious one-run lead, as two walks and the silence of center fielder Na Sung-beom in scoring position kept the game close.
It was Yasujin’s youngest player, Kim Do-young, who broke the balance of the game. In the top of the ninth inning, Kim hit a towering solo shot off the same-age closer Park Young-hyun (21). It was a 149-kilometer-per-hour four-seam fastball in the middle of the plate. It was the 17th pitch of the season with a distance of 120 meters.
Kim is now batting .341 with 17 home runs and 23 doubles in 68 games, just three shy of the 20-homer, 20-double mark.
Kia hasn’t had a Korean player come close to 20 home runs and 20 doubles in a while, with Roger Bernadina doing it two years in a row with 27 home runs and 32 doubles in 2017 and 20 home runs and 32 doubles in 2018, and the last Korean player to 토토사이트 do it was Lee Jong-beom with 20 home runs and 50 doubles in 2003. No Korean player has come close since, with the exception of Ahn Chi-hong (Hanwha) with 18 home runs and 19 stolen bases in 2014.
The 20-homer, 20-double mark isn’t the only one he could be aiming for. With Kim on pace for 20 homers and 20 doubles before the first half is over, he’s on pace for 33 homers and 46 doubles in 144 games, making the eighth 30-homer, 30-double season in KBO history no longer a pipe dream.
The most recent 30-homer, 30-double player was Eric Thames (then NC) in 2015, who hit 30 homers and 30 doubles against the Masan Hanwha on August 28 of that 카지노사이트 추천 year and became the first KBO player to hit 40 homers and 40 doubles by the end of the season with 47 homers and 40 doubles.
We have to go back a little further in time for the Korean players. The last Korean player to hit 30 home runs and 30 doubles was Park Jae-hong (Hyundai) in 2000, when he hit 32 home runs and 30 doubles. For the Tigers, Lee Jong-beom joined the 30-30 club in 1997 with 30 homers and 64 doubles, and Hong Hyun-woo joined the 30-30 club in 1999 with 34 homers and 31 doubles.
