‘Catch this?’ Even my teammates are surprised… Good start, Kim Ha-seong Lake rain + wedge hit! SD wins 3 in a row

From good defense to a walk-off hit, Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres) has been on fire since the first game of the second half.

Starting at second base and batting first in the lineup, Kim went 1-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, on April 15.

Kim had a very good first half. In 85 games prior to this one, he had 71 hits, 10 home runs, 31 RBIs, 44 runs scored, and a .258 OPS of .760. It was certainly encouraging to see him finish the first half of the year with a nine-game hitting streak, starting on June 30 against the Cincinnati Reds.토토사이트

His defense has been stellar. Kim, who was a Gold Glove finalist at shortstop in the National League after making the jump to the leadoff spot last year, has been even better at second base this year, ranking at the top of the league’s second basemen in a number of defensive metrics. And on this day, the offense and defense continued to flow.

Kim opened the second half of the game with a six-pitch at-bat against Philadelphia starter Christopher Sanchez in the first inning, lining out to left field. He followed that up with a pair of unfortunate errors on defense in the bottom of the first inning. In the case of the latter, the finishing was not as clean as it should have been, but fortunately, it didn’t lead to runs.

Hoseby struck first. In the top of the first inning, Philadelphia’s leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber hit a hard hit ball that floated behind Kim’s head. Kim chased down the ball with his wide range of defense and made a spectacular leaping catch in center field. Center fielder Trett Grisham hit Kim on the butt with his glove and praised Hoseby.

Hosmer’s celebration was quickly followed by disappointment. With the bases loaded and no outs, Nick Castellanos hit a line drive between the shortstop and second baseman, and once again, Kim made a wide-open backhanded catch. So far, so admirable defense. However, the center of gravity shifted and the ball sailed into the first base dugout, threatening to put a run on the board. Luckily, it didn’t, as starter Darvish Yu struck out the next batter, Bryce Harper.

In the second at-bat, there were no hits or walks. In his second at-bat with one out in the top of the third inning with a 1-0 lead, Kim didn’t swing at a six-pitch, 90.4-mph (about 154.5 kilometers) high sinker because he thought it was a ball. The fifth pitch, a changeup, followed a similar trajectory into the strike zone, but the umpire called it a ball. The sixth pitch, however, was called a strike and he retired on a groundout.

Kim faced Sanchez again in the top of the fifth inning with the bases loaded and two outs, 3-1, and looked for a sinker that followed a similar path to the pitch he had struck out on in his previous at-bat. The pitch was well placed, however, as it traveled 379 feet (115.5 meters) at a speed of 97.9 mph (157.6 km/h), but was caught by the center fielder.

But the silence was short-lived. In the top of the seventh inning with runners on first and second and three outs, Kim faced Andrew Vazquez for the fourth time and lined a four-pitch slider high in the strike zone to left field for a double, and in his fifth at-bat, he lined a well-timed pitch straight to the second baseman to finish the game 1-for-5.

With two straight wins to end the first half, San Diego kept the momentum going in the second half. It was San Diego that broke the tie. In the third inning, leadoff hitter Gary Sanchez hit a leadoff solo home run off Philadelphia starter Christopher Sanchez, and two batters later, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run shot to center field to extend the lead to 3-0.

The Phillies rallied in the bottom of the fourth when Alec Bomb hit a two-out, two-run double off Darvish. But San Diego wasn’t going away. In the top of the sixth, Manny Machado hit a solo home run off Philadelphia reliever Jeff Hoffman to bring the Padres back within three runs.

With the momentum in their favor, the Dodgers added a run in the top of the seventh when Brandon Dixon walked and Ha-Sung Kim hit a game-winning RBI single. In the ninth, Juan Soto hit a two-run shot to put the game away. On the day, Darvish picked up his sixth win of the season with six innings of five-hit ball, two walks, nine strikeouts and one run (one earned) as San Diego took the first game of the second half with an 8-3 victory to extend its winning streak to three games.