“Were there a lot of people at home?”…the shortstop on his first career walk-off home run “Me?” Surprised even himself

“There were a lot of people standing in front of home plate.”

Park Sung-hyun (SSG Landers) went 1-for-4 with a home run, four RBIs and one run scored in the sixth inning of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League game against the LG Twins at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on April 24.

Park’s chances came in the first inning. After Choi Ji-hoon singled with one out, Choi and Heredia reached on errors by Moon Bo-kyung and Austin Dean, respectively. Choi then flied out to left field, but Park Sung-yi, who came to bat next, took a 144km/h fastball from Lee Ji-gang over the right field fence.

SSG gave up a two-run homer to Lee Jae-won in the top of the second and an RBI single to Kim Min-sung in the top of the fourth, but responded with a run-scoring single by Choi Ju-hwan in the bottom of the fourth. He then pitched a scoreless inning to avenge the previous day’s loss.

Park told reporters after the game, “I wasn’t trying to hit a home run. I tried to be aggressive and swing hard in a favorable count, and I think it worked out well.” “I think we were able to take a good lead early on (with the walk-off home run),” he said.

“I think Sung-han’s grand slam had an impact on the game as a whole,” said SSG coach Kim Won-hyung.

Park said it was the first time he hit a grand slam since he started playing baseball. He said, “I’ve never had one before. I’ve hit one-, two-, and three-run homers, but a grand slam was the first time in my life,” he said. “I felt great running around the bases. I felt like, ‘I hit a grand slam?’ It was even better that it came in an important game. It was even better that it was in a big game. I came home and there were so many people standing there. There were a lot of high fives. I think it was better,” he said. 메이저사이트

Park didn’t hit well in April. He batted .194 with two home runs, six RBIs, and a .671 OPS in 14 at-bats. But in May, his bat started to come alive. He has 23 hits, one home run, 12 RBIs, and a .329 OPS of 0.834.

On May 9, hitting coach Lee Jin-young said, “I told him, ‘When it’s bad, think about getting back to good hitting as quickly as possible, and when it’s good, think about how long you can keep it going.’ I only told him that his timing was off, and it seems to be getting better as he corrects it.” Park still has a lot to work on.

“It’s definitely better than April,” he said, “but there are still a lot of things I don’t like about it. It doesn’t seem to be going as well as I wanted, so I’m trying to keep preparing well.”

Park is in his third season as the starting shortstop this season. “Of course, I have to be good,” he said, “because I’m a shortstop, so I have to play offense and defense. Since I’m a shortstop, I think I have to be good at both offense and defense,” he said, “and I think I’ll have to work hard to meet those expectations.”

[SSG Landers’ Park Sung-ho looks at the ball after hitting a grand slam against LG’s Lee Ji-gang in the bottom of the first inning of the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ game against LG at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on Thursday afternoon.

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