Lee Jung-hoo hits first MLB walk-off victory

Lee Jung-hoo, 27, of the San Francisco Giants, has hit his first walk-off hit since joining Major League Baseball, leading his team to its fifth consecutive victory.

On Aug. 29, Lee started as the seventh batter and center fielder in San Francisco’s home game against the Chicago Cubs. He came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with the score tied 3-3 and runners on first and second with one out. He hit an inside slider from opposing closer Daniel Palencia, 25, for a single to right field, driving in Christian Koss from second base for the winning run.

After securing the 4-3 victory, Lee ran away from his teammates as if in a game of tag, joking, “I remembered how much I got hit when other players hit walk-off hits, so I ran to avoid getting hit too much.” He was soon caught by his teammates and collapsed on the field. During his time with the Kiwoom Heroes in the Korean Professional Baseball League, Lee recorded three walk-off hits.

Lee, who ended his debut MLB season early last year due to injury, is experiencing a roller-coaster season in his first full year. Through April, he batted .319, performing at an elite level, but his average dropped to .231 in May and .143 in June. He rebounded to a .278 average in July and raised it further to .315 in August. For the season overall, Lee has a .261 batting average with seven home runs, 48 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.

“Lee Jung-hoo is now driving the ball to create line drives and handling bad pitches well. This is exactly what we expected from him,” said Buster Posey, the San Francisco Giants’ head of baseball operations and a former franchise star. “His bat control is excellent, which allows him to really challenge opposing pitchers at the plate.”

As of this game, Lee ranks ninth in MLB with a 34.4% rate in the “squared-up” statistic. The statistic, which can be translated into Korean as “perfect contact rate,” is calculated by first estimating the maximum theoretical exit velocity for each swing a batter takes. If the actual exit velocity reaches at least 80% of that speed, it is considered a “squared-up” hit. In other words, it measures how often a batter makes contact near the sweet spot of the bat. NBC Sports commented, “Lee Jung-hoo may lack raw power, but his ability to make the most of contact overwhelms other hitters.”


Bo-Mi Im bom@donga.com