Tampa Bay's Choi Ji-man hits his 30th homer in Major League

Choi Ji-man of the Tampa Bay Rays has become the fourth Korean national to hit the 30th career homer in the Major League Baseball.

As the first batter in the bottom of the second inning, Choi hit a solo homer at a home game against the Cleveland Indians, which took place at Tropicana Field in Florida on Saturday. It was his 13th homer in this season. The 28-year-old hit a total of 17 homeruns from 2016 to last year. The new tally makes Choi the fourth Korean national who has achieved the 30th homer mark in the Big League after Choo Shin-soo’s 209, Kang Jung-ho’s 46, and Choi Hee-seop’s 40.

Choi had three hits including a homer, one RBI, and two runs from four times at bat to display impressive performance on the day. He had one hit towards the centerfield in his second time at bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, and another hit towards the left field at the fourth time at bat in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Tampa Bay gave Cleveland two runs in the top of the first inning, but managed to come from behind to win the game 9-6 thanks to Choi’s stellar performance to garner three consecutive wins. Choi slightly elevated his batting average from 0.259 to 0.265.


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com