Professional baseball Kiwoom Heroes Lee Hyung-jong scored an RBI in 133 days. It was a thrilling final hit to determine the victory.
Lee started as the sixth right fielder at a game against LG held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Saturday. At his first at-bat in the second inning, he struck out LG starter Hernandez. In the fourth inning, Choi Joo-hwan’s three-run home run and Bae Sang-kwon’s back-to-back home run turned the game around 4-1, he walked and got on base.메이저놀이터
In the sixth inning, he hit a hit that separated the left-center field with one out and a runner on the first base, but was caught by left fielder Kim Hyun-soo. He stepped on the base on the second base thinking that the first baseman would be a hit, but he was delayed from returning to the first base, resulting in a double out.
Lee also had a hit on the previous day’s game, but was caught by the opponent team’s fielder. He was caught by right fielder Hong Chang-ki’s defense on Tuesday.
Kiwoom allowed Hong Chang-ki to tie the game after a two-run double in the top of the eighth inning with a 4-2 lead. With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Kiwoom had a bases-loaded chance with Kim Hye-sung’s priority double, Song Sung-moon’s intentional four pitches, and Choi Joo-hwan’s hit to left-center field.
Bae Sang-kwon struck out, and Lee Hyung-jong entered the batter’s box. He hit a timely two-run left-handed hit against LG bullpen Kim Jin-sung to break the balance 6-4.
When Lee finished his broadcast interview as a trainee after the match, he was baptized with water by his teammates. The mischievous teammate also poured water into Lee’s pants. “I’ve never received water baptism before, so I wanted to do it today,” Lee said with a smile.
Lee Hyung-jong hit the final hit against Kim Jin-sung, a must-win group of LG. Lee Hyung-jong explained, “Kim Jin-sung played against me a lot when he was in NC, but he almost threw a lot of folk balls. I was so embarrassed because I was aiming for a fork ball at the first pitch, but I tried to hit it because I didn’t really aim for it, but it was a shame. From the second pitch, I thought it would be good to make contact with the fastball timing, and even if I swing and get two strikes, I have another chance, so I decided not to miss the fastball, but luckily, I got a fastball.”
Having shown good batting performance since the season’s opening, Lee suffered a columnar fracture after being hit in the foot by a foul ball in the first game of a doubleheader against Doosan on April 21. He underwent surgery and focused on rehabilitation until early July.
Prior to the injury, Lee had a batting average of 268 in 21 games, but showed off his slugging capability by posting four homers and 17 RBIs. After returning to the top-tier Korean pro team in early July, Lee had a batting average of only 43 (one hit in 23 times at bat) in 11 games. He seemed to have hurriedly returned to the team, lacking in physical condition and sense of actual play.
He was excluded from the first team entry in late July and returned to the mound after a month. Lee Hyung-jong, who returned to the first team entry on Sunday, scored an RBI single in a timely hit in the game against LG. It was his first RBI in 133 days since the game against Lotte on April 14.
Lee Hyung-jong said, “When I returned, the team was in a difficult situation and since I was in 10th place, I think there was some pressure to show some responsibility. It was difficult because the results (from the batting) were not coming out. (At the end of July) I went down (to the second division) and started to raise my legs again (leg kick) to reorganize, and I tried to eat more comfortably. It’s always my charm to swing confidently and it’s my swing, but I think it was time to sort out my mind.”