The son of KBO legend Lee Jong-beom and LG Twins coach Lee Jong-hoo, Lee made his professional debut in a Heroes uniform in 2017. He was named Rookie of the Year and quickly became a superstar in the KBO, winning five consecutive Golden Gloves between the 2018 and 2022 seasons. As of last year, he was batting .342 with 59 home runs, 470 RBIs, and a .902 OPS.
With this kind of performance, Lee is expected to try his hand at Major League Baseball (MLB) through the posting system after this season. However, he struggled mightily early in the year. In the month of April, he batted .218 with three home runs, 13 RBIs, and 11 runs scored. These numbers don’t sound like Lee at all. The main reason for this was that he changed his batting form to hit the fastballs of big league pitchers and didn’t adjust well.
However, despite these results, Kium coach Hong Won-ki was not in a hurry. On several occasions, Hong expressed that he wasn’t worried at all and encouraged Lee Jung-hoo.
With this belief, Lee slowly began to rebound. He returned to his hitting form, batting .305 with one home run, 12 RBIs, and 14 runs scored in the month of May.
His bat was just as hot against LG Electronics on July 7, when he started at third base and center field. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning, Lee took advantage of a six-pitch changeup from opposing starter Adam Plutko, who was 8-0 with a 1.88 ERA prior to the game, and hit an infield single toward first base. Unfortunately, he was stranded at second base.
In the bottom of the third inning, with the score tied at 1-1, Lee’s bat heated up even more. The leadoff hitter stepped up to the plate after Park Chan-hyuk turned to fly to center field and pulled a 140-kilometer body cutter from Plutko for a solo arch over the right field fence. It was Lee’s sixth home run of the season and traveled 110 meters.
After leading off the bottom of the sixth inning with a pull on a four-pitch slider from Plutko for a double to the right side of the infield and 메이저사이트 scoring on Song Sung-moon’s RBI single to left, Lee drew walks in the bottom of the eighth, ninth and extra-inning 12th innings. In the bottom of the 12th, he scored his third run of the day on a two-run single by Kim Soo-hwan.
He ended up 3-for-3 with a double, a home run, one RBI, three walks, and three runs scored. While his cycling hit came up short, he did manage to break his own single-game record for most walks with six. He had previously stolen five bases on 14 occasions. Lee is now batting .290 for the season and is on pace to break the triple-digit batting average mark.
Kiwoom tied the game with LG 5-5 in the 12th inning of extra innings. However, Kiwoom gained more valuable support from the resurrected Lee Jeong-hoo than the victory. This is the most important factor in the rebound of Kiwoom, which is currently tied for eighth place with 22 wins, one draw and 33 losses.