KIA Tigers foreign hitter Socrates Brito (32) hit a home run against his former team.
At the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League Kiwoom Heroes match held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Sunday, Socrates had two hits, three RBIs, one homer and two runs scored in four times at bat. KIA led by Socrates won the game 6-2.
It was unusual from the beginning of the game. Socrates pulled Kiwoom starter Kim In-beom’s 137 km/h fastball at the fifth pitch with no outs and a second base in the bottom of the first inning, and recorded an RBI double to the right field. Socrates hit home when Kim Sun-bin had a hit.
Socrates, who hit a long ball in the first inning, hit a home run in the second inning. Coming to the batter’s box with one out and a runner on the first base in the bottom of the second inning, Socrates hit a two-run homer by hitting Kim In-beom’s first fastball of 134 km/h. It was his 24th home run in the 2024 season.
With this home run, Socrates made a home run against all clubs in the 2024 season. There was no home run against Kiwoom before the game, but it finally completed the milestone. KIA produced another batter who hit a home run against the former club after Kim Do-young. It is the first time Socrates has achieved this record since entering the KBO League.
KIA, which had three runs in the bottom of the first inning, gave up one run in the top of the second inning, but immediately added two more to make it 5-1. He allowed one run again in the top of the eighth inning, but added another run on Seo Geon-chang’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning to seal the victory. KIA, which overpowered Kiwoom, reduced its magic number to 7 as the second-ranked Samsung Lions lost to the NC Dinos 9-1.
Socrates, who is entering his third season in the KBO League this year, failed to rebound in the first half. As his batting average was 0.274 with 11 homers and 19 RBIs through May, rumors of his release also spread.
Socrates, who had been raising the possibility of separation from KIA, rebounded with a batting average of 0.329 with five home runs and 18 RBIs with an OPS of 1.017 during the month of June. Since then, he has completely revived by achieving a batting average of .300 for two consecutive months in July (0.359) and August (0.323). In September, he has continued his upward trend by making hits in all games except for the confrontation with Kiwoom on the 6th.
Thanks to Socrates’ revival, KIA is gaining momentum for its 12th career championship. With seven games gaping against second-ranked Samsung, KIA is leading the way with 79 wins, 50 losses and two draws (0.612 win rate). Attention is focusing on whether Socrates can lead KIA to a unified championship. 메이저놀이터