Left off Team Korea, Choo Gets 2 Hits

As if demonstrating his disappointment for being left out of the national team for the Doha Asian Games, Choo Shin-soo (24, Cleveland Indians) recorded a multi-hit game for the first time in a long time.

On September 5, in an away game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Choo played the fifth batter and the leftfielder, producing two hits in three at bats. It is the sixth game in the season that Choo recorded a multi-hit game and the first in 17 games or 25 days since he recorded three hits in five at bats on the 11th last month. His seasonal batting average mounted from 0.263 to 0.275.

On the second inning with one out, he hit the first ball of the Blue Jays’ starter Shaun Marcum which dropped in front of the right fielder, and then on the sixth, as the leading batter of the inning, he produced another hit to centerfield off Brandon League. In the fourth inning, he struck out. After making two hits from two right-handed pitchers, he was substituted for right-handed Jason Michaels as B.J. Ryan, a Blue Jays’ lefthander, took the mound in the eighth inning. Cleveland lost the game with the score 3-4.

Ryan Howard, who is in his second year with the Philadelphia Phillies, slugged his 53rd homer of the season. As he slammed three home runs the day before against Atlanta, a solo in the first inning, a two-run shot in the third and another solo in the sixth, he is now in a lead in the National League home run race, way ahead of Alfonso Soriano (Washington), who has 44. His record is also six ahead of David Ortiz (Boston) who is leading the American League with 47.

In addition, in the game against Cincinnati, Barry Bonds (San Francisco) hit his career no. 730 home run, which reduced the number of steps left to Hank Aaron’s monumental record, 755, to 25.

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