“It was quiet after the home run, but that home run alone was enough to get on the list of hot players.”
Ha-seong Kim (28) was selected as the San Diego Padres Hot Player for the first week of May. San Diego local media ‘East Village Times’ selected Ha-seong Kim, pitchers Darvish Yu and Michael Waka, catcher Brett Sullivan, and outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. as hot players of the week on the 9th (Korean time).
Ha-seong Kim’s home run, which the media picked, came in a home game against the Cincinnati Reds on the 2nd. Ha-seong Kim led the team to an 8-3 victory by scoring 3 runs at the end of the 5th inning with 2 out 1st and 2nd base in a 3-3 match. In the ball count of 2-2, the opponent pitcher Alex Young’s changeup was driven to the middle, and he did not miss it and countered it.
The East Village Times said, ‘Kim Ha-seong ran away with a 3-point gap in a 3-3 confrontation situation and scored 3 points to lead the team to victory. It was even a home run that gave Kim Ha-sung a chance to make a curtain call,’ he emphasized.
On the 6th, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ha-seong Kim delivered a decisive blow that brought down opponent ace Clayton Kershaw. At the end of the 5th inning, where the score was 1-1, Tatis Jr.’s two-run four exploded and the atmosphere heated up. In the continued second-out opportunity, Kim Ha-seong scored an infield hit with a deep ball to the shortstop and scored one RBI. It was a timely hit that grated Kershaw as he ran away 4–1. Thanks to that, San Diego won 5-2. 스포츠토토
Kim Ha-seong left a strong impression from moment to moment, recording a batting average of 0.316 (6 hits in 19 at-bats), 1 home run, 5 walks, 4 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.985 in 6 games in the first week of May.
Conversely, Zander Bogarts, the starting shortstop who pushed Kim Ha-seong to the second baseman, was selected as the player who performed poorly in the first week of May. Ahead of this season, Bogatz signed a large contract with San Diego for 11 years, 280 million dollars (approximately 370.3 billion won), taking Kim Ha-sung’s place. Looking at his performance this season alone, he had a batting average of 0.283 (36 hits in 127 at-bats), 6 home runs, 15 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.843 in 34 games.
However, in May, the bat cooled down. He has a batting average of 0.150 (3 hits in 20 at-bats) and an OPS of 0.461 in 6 games, raising concerns.