It was a pity that it didn’t hit a home run. Choi Ji-man is standing at the plate only if a right-handed pitcher appears this season. In a slightly wild situation, he came out as a substitute and led the team to a comeback.
By Moon Sang-hyuk, staff reporter.
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Tampa Bay was the first to concede two runs with a hit in the first inning.
I was dragged out without scoring until the 5th inning, but it was this player who broke through the frustrating batting line.
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Choi Ji-man added excitement to his 115-meter double hit, which would have been a full-run home run if it had been a little longer.
In the 7th inning, he split the right ground and made a comeback for the team with two hits in two at-bats, but it left a bitter aftertaste as much as a pleasant one.
In 14 games this season, his batting average was over 30% and his on-base percentage was 50%, the highest in the league.
It’s not a strange record for starting every game, but Choi Ji-man often keeps the bench.
A manager who uses a different batter depending on the opposing pitcher does not use Choi Ji-man as the starting pitcher when a left-handed pitcher is predicted.
This is because the career batting average against left-handed pitchers is as low as 20% to 2R, as is the popular belief in baseball that left-handed batters are weak against lefties.
But this season alone, things are different.
Choi Ji-man met a left-handed pitcher and hit five hits in eight at-bats.
A batter’s greatest fortune is his experience at the plate, and answers to his weaknesses could be found here, but Choi did not waver despite the bad conditions he did not get a chance at.
From last season to today’s (25th) game, he appeared 13 times as a pinch hitter and was on base all but one.
Towards this kind of Choi Ji-man, my colleagues believed that “I believed that when Choi Ji-man from the bench came out, I would hit 100%” and “I will become the best hitter.”
