At the Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, where the Kiwoom and Samsung games took place on Sunday, spotlight was focused on only one player even before the game. Park Byung-ho (38), the home run king of the KT Wiz who transferred to Samsung from the KT Wiz through a trade on Monday, was the main character.
When Park Byung-ho appeared in Samsung’s blue uniform, Samsung fans welcomed him with a big round of applause. The opposing team’s Kiwoom fans also supported Park Byung-ho’s new start. Kiwoom is also the former team where Park Byung-ho spent his prime time.
Park Byung-ho, who played with a new number 59 instead of the number 52 that he wore when he was with Kiwoom and KT, hit a home run from the first game of his transfer.
Park Byung-ho, who started as the sixth designated hitter, hit a huge fly that was caught right in front of the right fence in his first at-bat in the second inning.
Coming up to the batter’s box for the second time in the bottom of the fourth inning with one out and no runners at the batter’s box, when his team was losing 1-8, Park belted a home run off starter Enmanuel de Jesus. As the slider at the center of the strike zone at the fourth pitch, he swung the bat lightly. The hit at the center of the bat stretched and led to an off-the-field homerun that passed through the fence and the outfield stands. The flying distance measured 120 meters. It was the first time in 21 days that Park tasted a home run since the game against NC Dinos on Sunday when he was wearing a KT uniform. It was his fourth homer of this season and his 384th in his career.
Right-handed slugger Park Byung-ho, who was the home run king six times (2012-2015, 2019 and 2022), had a hard time early this year. With the revival of “genius hitter” Kang Baek-ho, and even right-handed hitter Moon Sang-cheol exploding his potential, Park lost ground in the competition to become a starting member. His performance shrank as his chances to play declined. He had a batting average of 0.198 (20 hits in 101 at-bats) three homers and 10 RBIs in 44 games before the game. Park was nowhere near becoming the home run king with 35 homers in 2022, his first year as a member of KT. Park, who wanted to finish the game honorably, sought more opportunities to play and requested KT to disclose waivers, and eventually settled in with Samsung through a one-on-one trade with Oh Jae-il.
Samsung, which had been thirsty for a right-handed slugger, has high expectations on Park. Still has the power to cross the fence anytime, and due to the nature of Daegu Samsung Lions Park, the distance to the left-center and right-center fences is short, which could be much more advantageous to Park.
Samsung lost 5-11 after a home run battle on the day, but Park Byung-ho’s performance on the day raised expectations for his stellar performance in the future. After being grounded out to shortstop in the sixth inning, Park added one hit in the eighth inning, finishing his first game after transferring to Korea with two hits, one RBI and one run from four times at bat.
Kiwoom’s No. 4 hitter Lee Joo-hyung contributed the most to Kiwoom’s four-game winning streak by sinking Samsung into a swamp of four consecutive losses on the day.
Lee hit a timely hit in the first inning, followed by a three-run homerun in the third inning. He had a hit in the fourth inning, and a double in the right field line in the sixth inning, displaying perfect performance by making four hits, four RBIs and two runs from five times at bat. It was Lee’s record of most RBIs and most hits in a single game.
Kiwoom sealed the game by running three more runs in the seventh inning with foreign players Dawson’s solo home run and Choi Joo-hwan and Kim Joo-hyung’s timely hit.
Leading Kia Tigers beat NC by 6-3 at the Changwon game by banking on home runs by Na Sung-bum and Kim Do-young. Kia, which has won four consecutive games, maintained its gap with second-ranked LG at 2.5 games.
In Daejeon, the Hanwha Eagles led by rookie Hwang Joon-seo’s hard pitching won 3-0 over Lotte, continuing its fourth consecutive win. Hwang garnered his first quality start and second win (five losses) of the season by pitching six innings of two hits, five walks and no runs.
At Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, Doosan won 12-6 after stopping KT’s five-game winning streak. Doosan won the game by scoring six runs en masse in the fourth inning, when the game was tying 3-3. Kim Jae-hwan hit a two-run homer, his 13th of the season. 메이저놀이터
At Incheon International Stadium, LG crushed the SSG 13-4 and won its sixth consecutive game. The team has lost eight straight games. SSG lost eight straight games for the first time since its eight-game losing streak (final 11 straight games) from Aug. 28 to Sept. 5, 2020, when it was a former SK Wyverns player.