Ha-seong Kim hit his 4th home run of the season and 40th of his career at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, known as the ‘graveyard of pitchers.’
Ha-seong Kim played as number 5 and shortstop in an away game against the Colorado Rockies on the 26th and drew a parabola over the fence in 9 days. In the top of the first inning, with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, he retired with a ground ball to shortstop, but did not miss Rockies starting pitcher Dakota Hudson’s ball into the body at 1st base in the 3rd inning with a 2-1 lead. Hudson hit a 90 mph sinker on the third pitch and hit a two-run home run over the left field wall. Distance approximately 123. On the 9th, after 8 games, I felt the thrill of hitting a 3-run home run in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers on the 17th. Ha-Seong Kim had his fourth arch in his 27th game, his 28th for the team this year. This is a home run pace that is 12 games faster than last year (team 40 games). Ha-seong Kim sent 8 batted balls over the fence in 2021, his big league debut year, and is increasing the number of home runs each season to 11 in 2022 and 17 in 2023.
Ha-seong Kim retired after hitting a home run in the game on the 26th with a bad hit in three at-bats. He retired with a grounder to the third baseman in the fifth and strikeouts in the eighth and ninth. The Padres were ahead 9-4 at one point, but lost 9-10 when the bullpen pitchers collapsed starting in the 8th inning. The Padres, second in the National League West Division, recorded 14 wins and 14 losses, widening their lead over the leaders, the Los Angeles Dodgers (16 wins, 11 losses), who had won 4 games in a row by beating the Washington Nationals 2 to 1 that day, to 2.5 games. The LA Dodgers led the team to victory as Japanese starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts, and no runs. The maximum speed of the fastball reached 156 km. The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani was silent with no hits in four at-bats. His on-base streak of 22 consecutive games, which started on April 1, ended.
Ha-seong Kim, who is in his fourth year in the major leagues, has established himself as a key player for the Padres by posting the best performance in offense and defense in the 2023 season. He left a batting average of 0.260, 17 home runs, 38 stolen bases, and OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) of 0.762, and was named among the 26 National League MVP candidates.
This year, while playing in 27 of the team’s 28 games, he has a batting average of 0.238 (24 hits in 101 at-bats), 4 home runs, 17 RBI, 17 runs, and an OPS of 0.774. If he finishes the season at his current pace, it looks like he will fall short of last year’s pace of 14 home runs, 23 stolen bases, and 61 RBIs. However, Ha-seong Kim stayed at a batting average of 0.209 with 2 home runs and 5 stolen bases until April last year, but then increased his batting pace from May to July. If you compare your performance until April of last year with your current performance this year, your current pace is actually better.
