Park Kyoung-wan bangs his 17th homer

“You hit a homer. Then I also did it.”

SK’s Police Chief, Park Kyoung-wan and Hyundai’s foreign hitter, Brumbaugh engage in a hot competition for the title of homerun king.

Park slammed a 141 kilometer-an-hour fastball of opposing starting pitcher Pieary for a two-run homer to left field with a runner on second and no one out in the 4th inning against Suwon Hyundai on May 16. It was his 17th homer of the season to exceed Brumbaugh by one homerun and to promote Park as the single leader in the homerun ranking.

Park has faced Brumbaugh three times since last weekend. Park was quiet while Brumbaugh smacked a homer to hold first place on May 14. Park felt bad-tempered upon Brumbaugh’s remark, “I am happier to blow it in front of Park.” The next day, Park smashed two homers to tie with Brumbaugh, who also added one homer for the day. Then Park recovered the sole lead on May 16.

Having been inactive with only one homer in 15 days due to severe neck pain since the beginning of the month, Park built up his will for homerun king again with his impressive three homers over two games. Park is extremely confident as he says, “Balls come so clearly to me lately.” Hyundai beat SK, 6-4.

Samsung was crushed by LG, 1-10, in Chamsil, and disgraced themselves by tying their worst losing streak since 1989 with nine straight losses.

Having too many concerns recently and seeing no one right before the game, Samsung’s manager Kim Eung-riong marked nine consecutive losses twice for Haitai in 2000 which mark his personal record for straight losses.

Samsung pitchers have allowed three grand slams during this low period of one tie and nine losses in the last ten games, and the Samsung team was put into a total crisis with fielding errors as well as the mound’s breakdown and poor batting.

Having lost four straight times previously, LG met Samsung and earned momentum with two consecutive wins and a tie. On the day, LG drove four homers including a grand slam by Choi Dong-soo in the 3rd against the powerless Samsung.

In Kwangju, Kia achieved a 7-6 come-from-behind victory against Doosan thanks to pinch-hitter Lee Jae-joo’s end of the game three-run homer with runners on second and third base with one out in the 9th inning when Kia was behind, 4-6.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com