San Diego falls to Pittsburgh in an upset.
Lee signs minor league deal with Boston
Kim Ha-seong celebrates after hitting a leadoff home run during the first inning of a Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Friday. It was Kim's third leadoff home run of the season.
For the first time in his Major League Baseball (MLB) career, Kim Ha-seong (28, San Diego) hit two home runs in the same game.
Kim batted first and third against Pittsburgh on Friday and hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning to give his team a 1-0 lead. Kim has batted leadoff in 26 games this season, posting a 1.223 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) in his first at-bat. When Baek Incheon (81) hit .412 in his first year in the Korean Baseball Organization (1982), he had an OPS of 1.237. When Kim leads off a game, he's performing like a "four-hitter.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, down 1-8, Kim added a two-run home run over the left field fence. In doing so, he recorded his first multi-homer game in his 363rd MLB game. However, Kim's two home runs were overshadowed by the team's 4-8 loss. For the Korean Baseball Organization Nexen (now Kiwoom), Kim recorded his first two-homer game on April 22, 2015, against Mokdong Doosan, which also resulted in a 9-12 loss. After hitting two home runs in a total of six games, Kim was sent to San Diego.
By this point, Kim was tied for first in the National League with Ronald Acuña Jr. (26-Atlanta) with a 5.1 wins above replacement (bWAR) per Baseball-Reference. In all of MLB, only Shohei Ohtani (29-LA Angels-6.8) has a higher bWAR than Kim.
Kim's Nexen teammate, Jung-ho Kang (36), who played for Pittsburgh from 2015-2019, also traveled to Petco Park for the game. After greeting his former Pittsburgh teammates before the game, Kang was seen celebrating after catching a foul ball with his bare hands in the top of the third inning.
The Red Sox announced earlier in the day that they had signed Seoul High School right-handed pitcher Lee Chansol, 18, to a minor league contract. Lee, along with Masan Yongmago's Jang Hyun-seok (19), 한국야동 was one of the top two draft picks in the Korean Baseball Organization.