The road to achieving the milestone is a long and tough one. He challenged the 40-40 club with his determination, but his long-awaited homeruns stopped at 38, and the final game of the regular season is just around the corner.안전놀이터
Kim Do-young will get the last chance to challenge the long-awaited 40-40 at home against the NC Dinos in the final regular season of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 30th.
Kim Do-young, who is in his third year as a professional player and played his first full-time season, contributed greatly to KIA’s regular-season championship by playing in 140 games with a batting average of 0.348 (188 hits in 540 times at bat) 38 home runs, 108 RBIs, 142 runs, 40 steals, and OPS 1.070. He swept the top ranks in major batting categories, including first in scoring and slugging (0.650) and second in homers, third in batting average and on-base percentage (0.420), third in most hits, sixth in stolen bases, and eighth in RBIs.
Kim Do-young is making the 2024 season his year by writing a number of new records. Starting with the first 10 home runs and 10 steals per month in the KBO League in April, he made so many records that it was hard to list each one, including joining the 20-20 club in the first half of the KBO League, the minimum at-bat (4 at-bats) natural cycling hit, the youngest 30 home runs and 30 steals, the third 30 home runs and 30 steals and 100 RBIs and 100 points, and the new record for the most runs in a single season (135 points in Seo Geon-chang in 2014).
The final hurdle in a remarkable streak of records was the second in KBO league history (the first Eric Thames in 2015) and the first 40 homers and 40 steals by a Korean batter. Lee Bum-ho, Kia’s manager who confirmed the victory with seven games left in the regular season, deployed Kim Do-young as the first batter to ensure that he would be at bat as much as possible. Kim Do-young also showed his greed for a record that he had refrained from, displaying his commitment to achieve.
The record seemed close but distant. At the game against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on Wednesday, Kim hit a 126.3-meter triple that could have been a home run if it had been a different stadium. At the game against the Samsung Lions in Gwangju on Sunday, he garnered three hits, including his 38th homer of the season, and added a stolen base to reach the 40th base first.
He created a requirement to join the 40-40 club by adding two homers in five games, but failed to move forward. He had multiple hits in three of the four games, but no hit flew over the fence. As time passed, the last game is just around the corner.
A historic record was born in the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Miami Marlins in Major League Baseball on the 20th (Korea time). “Superstar” Shohei Ohtani added as many as three home runs and two stolen bases in one game, recording 51 home runs-51 steals, opening the unprecedented 50-50 club. Ohtani’s star quality shone even more as soon as he achieved the record.
Kim, who is showing off her unrivaled star quality in the 2024 KBO League, will make another history in the final game. Kim will play in two multi-homer games this season, one against the Incheon SSG Landers on April 17 and the other against the Suwon KT Wiz on September 16. He has never hit more than two home runs in a single game in Gwangju. Baseball fans are paying keen attention to whether Kim will be able to open the club 40 to 40 by playing star-studded games like Ohtani’s 50-50 victory.