Lotte Giants leadoff Ahn Kwon-soo was left out of the starting lineup due to elbow pain, but Kim Min-seok, a ‘special rookie’, perfectly filled the vacancy.
Ahn Kwon-soo is leading Lotte’s offense at the beginning of this season. He played in all games (22 games) in April and has 27 hits, 2 home runs, 12 RBIs, 10 points, 8 walks, 11 strikeouts, a batting average of 0.318 OPS and 0.816, fully fulfilling the leadoff role.
Ahn Kwon-soo, who performed well, missed the match against the KIA Tigers in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at KIA Champions Field in Gwangju on the 2nd. He felt elbow pain and was removed from the roster to protect the player.
The vacancy of Ahn Kwon-soo was filled by Kim Min-seok. Kim Min-seok, who graduated from Whimoon High School, was nominated by Lotte as the third overall pick in the first round of the 2023 rookie draft. He was nominated after Kim Seo-hyun (Hanwha Eagles) and Yoon Young-cheol (KIA). He is the first player to be picked among the batsmen.
On this day, Kim Min-seok started as the first batter in center field and contributed to the team’s 9-game winning streak by recording 3 hits and 2 runs in 5 at-bats. Lotte defeated KIA 7-3 and achieved 9 consecutive wins in 5358 days.
From his first at-bat, Kim Min-seok hit a double against Adonis Medina and went out. Then, he stepped on the third base with Ko Seung-min’s sacrifice bunt and took the first run with Jeon Jun-woo’s sacrifice fly.
In the second at-bat in the top of the second inning, he retreated with a ground ball in front of the first baseman, but hit again in the third at-bat in the top of the fourth inning. With no runners on first out, he recorded a hit in front of center fielder. He then succeeded in stealing bases and showed an active running base play.
In the beginning of the 6th inning, with 2 out runners on 1st base, Kim Min-seok came out to bat and scored an infield hit for 2nd baseman. Kim Seon-bin threw his body to block his well-hit ball, but could not lead it to an out. Afterwards, Ko Seung-min’s 2 RBIs and 3 bases came out, and Kim Min-seok completed the game with 3 hits and 2 runs. In the top of the ninth inning, Kim Min-seok, who took his last at-bat as the lead batter, retreated with a shortstop floating ball.메이저사이트
Kim Min-seok perfectly filled the vacancy of Ahn Kwon-soo. He raised his season batting average from 0.196 to 0.230. It was the first lead-off selection this season, but he played his part and showed that Lotte’s future is bright.
After the game, Kim Min-seok said, “I experienced batters 1, 2, and 3 when I was in high school. I knew very well that the team atmosphere was influenced by how the first hitter did. So even if I was out, I didn’t want to be out easily.” I knew that the atmosphere of the hitters was also getting worse, so I had a heart that I would not die easily even if good results did not come out.”