Kim Do-young also raised his batting order? He announced that he would push 200 hits, "It's good to set a record."
Kim Do-young also raised his batting order? He announced that he would push 200 hits, "It's good to set a record."
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"It's good to set a record."
Professional baseball KIA Tigers Kim Do-young (21) was forward-deployed as the first hitter against Doosan in Jamsil on the 19th. With KIA confirming its regular season win against Munhak SSG on the 17th, the batting order was advanced to No. 1 to support Kim Do-young's record challenge of 40 home runs and 40 steals.
Kim has 37 homers and 39 steals as the third batter this season. With only three homers and one stolen base to go until the 40s and 40s, the second since Eric Thames (47 homers and 40 steals) of the NC Dinosaurs in 2015, and the first Korean player to win the regular season title, Kia has advanced Kim to the first batter's box. Kim had one hit and one walk from four times at bat in the game against Doosan Bears on Sunday, but failed to add a homerun and a stolen base, and is expected to continue his challenge as the No. 1 hitter in the remaining six games.
There is a record challenge that attracts as much attention as Kim Do-young's 40-40 is the 200th hit. Nexen (current Kiwoom) Seo Geon-chang (KIA) had 201 hits in 2014, and 144 games of 10 clubs have not been played since the system began in 2015. In 2014, Seo Geon-chang recorded 201 hits in 128 games of nine clubs.
However, foreign hitter Victor Reyes (30) of the Lotte Giants is close to 200 hits this year. Reyes, who has 191 hits in the league as of last Tuesday, has eight more games to play in the remaining season. Arithmetically, he can make 202 hits.
He is fixed at the center of batting order three to four times this season, but he needs at least one more at-bat to make 200 hits. Although seventh-ranked Lotte still has a faint hope of advancing to the round of 5 based on arithmetic, it is not easy to overturn the gap with fifth-ranked KT in the remaining eight games with four games left.
As a result, there is a possibility that Reyes' batting order will be slightly increased to one or two to push the challenge of 200 hits. Of course, probabilistically, he will have to do his best in the optimal batting order until the semifinals are completely extinguished, but arithmetically, if it becomes zero, Reyes' batting order will likely rise.
In a meeting with reporters after the Hanwha match in Daejeon was canceled due to rain on the 21st, Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung said, "It's good to set a record. If you raise the batting order (to No. 1 or No. 2), you will be able to get about 7 at-bats, and if there are many, you will be able to get 10 more at-bats. I'm going to ask the player himself," adding that he can raise the batting order.
The closest hitter to 200 hits since Seo Geon-chang was Jose Miguel Fernandez, a foreign hitter who played for Doosan, who had 197 hits in 2019 and 199 hits in 2020. At the time, Doosan coach Kim Tae-hyung was also the coach of Doosan. Reyes, like Fernandez, is looking at 200 hits with his extreme contact skills.
"Fernandez is good for long-range hitting, but Reyes has better contact ability. He has fast feet and defense. All Fernandez did was hit," Kim said with a smile. "Reyes is doing better than expected. He is playing in every game." Reyes is the only Lotte player who started all 136 games this year. Only six players including Reyes, Kia Socrates Brito (138 games), LG Moon Bo-kyung, Park Hae-min (139 games), KT Mel Rojas Jr. and Kang Baek-ho (140 games) will participate in all games this season.
Fernandez hit 57 home runs while batting .328 (723 hits in 2,206 at-bats) for four years from 2019 to 2022. While using Jamsil Stadium, the largest stadium in the league, he did not show great slugging ability, but exceeded 21 in 2020 and hit an annual average of 14.3 over the past four years. Reyes also has 15 home runs this year, but manager Kim rated Fernandez higher for slugging 메이저놀이터 and contact higher for Reyes. Reyes ranks second in this category after SSG Guillermo Herredia (.362) with a batting average of 354 (191 hits in 540 at-bats).
Fernandez's foot was slow and defense was weak. In the U.S., his main position was second baseman, but when he came to Korea, he played almost as a designated hitter and occasionally covered his defense at first base. In comparison, Reyes is not outstanding in the right and left corners, but he is providing basic defense smoothly. In that sense, Kim is hitting Reyes a little higher than Fernandez, and he seems to be actively supporting his challenge of making 200 hits.