One home run away from joining the ’30-30′ club. Kim Do-young (21-KIA Tigers) has regained his confidence.
In 109 games this season, Kim is batting .346 with 29 home runs and 33 doubles. After consistently posting monthly batting averages in excess of .300 since April, Kim is batting .258 in nine games in August.
He is on pace to become the youngest player in history to hit 30 home runs and 30 doubles. Even after hitting 29 home runs against Hanwha in Daejeon on August 3, Kim admitted that he was worried about the home runs coming at a bad time.
Ahead of their game against the Gochuk Kiwoom Heroes on the 13th, Kia Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho shared the news of Kim’s regained confidence. He said, “Kim Do-young himself said, ‘I’ve got it now.’
Kim warmed up with a hit in his first at-bat on the 13th.
With the score tied 0-0 in the top of the first inning, Kim stepped to the plate and singled off Kiwoom starter Kim Yoon-ha. He took a curveball low in the strike zone and dropped it cleanly in front of center field.
After failing to produce another hit in his next two at-bats, Kim drew a walk and stole second in his fourth at-bat. With a 1-0 lead, she moved into scoring position and came home on Socrates’ RBI single.
While Kim has been consistent at the plate, the first hit of the day meant a little more to her. “When I’m out of my hitting cycle, I tend to not hit the ball at all,” Kim said. I compared my batting form when I was hitting well and when I wasn’t hitting well, and I realized that I had a batting form where I couldn’t hit the ball, so I made changes,” Kim said.
“When I was hitting well, I felt like I was holding it from behind, but when I was hitting badly, my upper body moved forward. I paid attention to that part, and I got a hit,” Kim said, adding, “It’s meaningful to get a hit in my first at-bat because I practiced something.”
“A home run has to be a hit. 메이저사이트 You can’t just keep hitting home runs. Instead of focusing on that one hit, you have to keep hitting to get the feeling, and when you get the feeling, you get the home run. If you keep hitting, it will come soon enough. If you keep hitting, it will come sooner or later, and if you keep hitting, it will be scary, so once you get one, you can keep hitting.”
Although the home run didn’t come, Kim’s first at-bat signaled that her 30th home run was imminent.
With one more home run, Kim, who was born on October 2, 2003, will become the youngest player in history to hit 30 home runs and 30 doubles, surpassing Park Jae-hong (22 years, 11 months, 27 days) in 1996.
The 30-homer, 30-double season has only happened eight times in the KBO. Park Jae-hong became the first in 1996 and then accomplished the feat three times in 1998 and 2000, followed by Lee Jong-beom (1997), Lee Byung-gyu Hong Hyun-woo, Jay Davis (1999) and Eric Thames (2015). Kim became the first Korean player to hit 30 home runs and 30 doubles in 24 years since Park Jae-hong in 2000.
This season, Kim has been on a tear for MVP honors. In April, he became the first KBO player to record 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases in a single month, and in June, he surpassed 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases for the 57th time in his career. Only Park Jae-hong, Lee Byung-kyu, and Themz have 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in the first half of the year.
For his flashy but steady performance, he was named the June Monthly MVP after being named the March and April Monthly MVP. He also achieved a cycling hit against Gwangju NC on the 23rd of last month. It was the 31st cycling hit of his career, but he became the first KBO player to record a natural cycling hit (a hit, a double, a triple, and a home run) in the minimum number of at-bats (four).