San Diego's first two home runs by Kim Ha-seong

Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres hit two home runs in one game for the first time since advancing to the Major League Baseball (MLB).

Kim started as the first batter and third baseman against Pittsburgh in a home game on Tuesday, and from the first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning, Kim hit a home run as the lead batter to give the team a 1-0 lead. Until this day, he has appeared in 26 games this season as the first batter, recording an OPS of 1.223 in his first at bat in the first inning. When Baek In-cheon (81) recorded a batting average of 0.412 in the first year of Korean professional baseball (1982), his OPS was 1.237. In comparison, Kim Ha-seong is playing on a “grade of a 40%-chance hitter” as the leading hitter in the game.

Kim Ha-seong then added a home run over the left wall in the bottom of the 5th inning, when the score was 1-8, with a chance to run on second base. In doing so, he recorded his first ‘multi-home run’ record after his 363rd game in the MLB. However, as the team lost 4-8, Kim's two home runs failed to attract attention. Kim recorded two home runs in a game for the first time in the Korean professional baseball team Nexen (currently Kiwoom) at a game against Doosan at the Mokdong stadium on April 22, 2015. Still, the result was a 9-12 defeat as well. Kim Ha-seong moved to San Diego after hitting two homers in six games.

Kim Ha-seong’s Nexen senior, Kang Jeong-ho (36), who played for Pittsburgh between 2015 and 2019, also visited Petco Park, where the game was held that day. Kang, who exchanged greetings with his old Pittsburgh teammates before the start of the game, was captured on TV cameras in the top of the third inning, delighted after catching a foul ball with his bare hands while the game was still in progress.


Kyu-In Hwang kini@donga.com