However, at the moment when they needed it the most, the only place the Doosan Bears could rely on was Kim Jae-hwan (35), the ‘batter number 4’. Kim Jae-hwan (35), the fourth hitter for the Doosan Bears, finally ended the long silence.안전놀이터
Doosan lost 3-7 to the KIA Tigers in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League regular season home game held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 9th. As a result, 5th place Doosan, who failed to win 4 in a row, recorded 27 wins, 1 draw and 25 losses, allowing 6th place KIA (24 wins, 27 losses) to chase by 2.5 games.
16,250 fans visited the baseball field even on Friday (Friday on Fire), but Doosan showed mostly lethargic performance. Starter Kim Dong-joo was shaken with 5 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts and 4 runs in 4⅔ innings, and the other line went on base against opponent starter Adonis Medina, but failed to score.
Then, in the 4th inning, Doosan got another chance to score due to Medina’s ditching. Medina allowed Hong Seong-ho and Heo Kyung-min consecutive walks, and even though the coaching staff visited the mound, Kim Jae-ho hit and swayed. Catcher Jang Seung-hyun with a batting average of 0.157 for the season at bat in a golden opportunity with one out and bases loaded. Here, Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop (47) chose Kim Jae-hwan as a pinch hitter.
On this day, Jaehwan Kim was excluded from the starting lineup for the first time in June and was in the dugout. The reason was the poor performance with a batting average of 0.133 in June. However, the master, who knows the weight of batter number 4 better than anyone else, embraced the student.
Prior to the game, coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “Kim Jae-hwan is a hitter who has hit more than 200 homers in the KBO League. Because he is such a player, it does not seem appropriate to say that he hit only with power (not with a hitting mechanism). , I think that as the season progresses, he will return to the old Kim Jae-hwan.”
Until this day’s game, Kim Jae-hwan had no hits in 17 consecutive at-bats after two RBIs and timely hits in the right middle of the Jamsil Samsung match on October 2, 2021 in a situation with full bases. The fact that Kim Jae-hwan was put in as a pinch hitter was a scene that symbolized that his words were not lies.
Kim Jae-hwan, who entered the 18th at-bat with no hits at full base, picked off Medina’s balls twice. Then, he hit a two-seam fastball that curves like a snake at 146 km/h and hit the ball beyond the height of the shortstop. It was the only timely hit with 2 RBIs in the 4 scoring opportunities that Doosan faced on this day, and it was a hit Kim Jae-hwan hit with the base loaded after 617 days. After that, he was replaced and had no more chances, but Kim Jae-hwan proved the manager Lee’s trust with one at-bat.
Coach Lee Seung-yeop was called the ‘national hitter’ when he hit a decisive blow at the moment the team needed it even though he was weak throughout the tournament. Director Lee is confident in the resurrection of his disciple. A timely hit at the base full, which has been cool for a long time, can be the first step.
Director Lee cheered, “I’m in the process of making it with (Kim) Jae-hwan. I’m trying to catch (a sense of hitting) by talking and training every day. I believe it will get better.”