struggling with a batting average of 10% two months ago, is like a dream. Lee Jung-hoo, who was at the top of the KBO league last year, returned to batting average of 30% and started to win the MVP for the second consecutive year.먹튀검증
On the 11th, in the match against KT in Suwon, Lee Jung-hoo started as the third center fielder and led Kiwoom to a 14-5 victory with 4 hits, 2 walks, 3 RBIs and 3 points in 4 at-bats.
Following the Gocheok LG game on the 7th, he succeeded in reaching base once again in all at-bats. In the first inning, when he went on base with a walk after a full count game, he stepped home when Lim Byung-wook’s two RBIs were timely hit. In the second inning with a straight walk, Lee Hyung-jong ran home from second base when Lee Hyung-jong hit a double at the right time with an RBI in left field.
In the 4th inning, when Kiwoom was ahead 6-0, he reached base with a double in the right field and passed the home base behind the preceding runner Kim Jun-wan. In the beginning of the 6th inning, he hit a double on the left field line, and in the 8th inning, he recorded 1 RBI and a timely double on the right field line directly from 1 company, 1st and 2nd base, and scored a direct RBI. 3 doubles in 1 game is the first time since the match against Hanwha in Daejeon on May 15, 2021. In the last at-bat in the 9th inning, he entered 2nd, 2nd and 3rd base, and completed the season’s first 4-hit game with 2 RBIs and a timely hit.
With this, Lee Jung-hoo broke through the 300 batting average at high speed in 49 days after recording a batting average of 0.197 against SSG in Incheon on April 23rd. His season performance was 58 games with a batting average of 0.304, 6 homers, 34 RBIs, 35 points and 3 stolen bases, an on-base percentage of 0.393, a slugging percentage of 0.470 and an OPS of 0.863.
There are five of them in the top 10 in eight major batting titles awarded at the year-end KBO League awards ceremony, including a tie for 3rd in the league for most hits, a tie for 8th in RBI, a tie for 6th in runs scored, 6th in on-base percentage, and 9th in slugging percentage. He is 12th in the league in batting average and tied for 13th in home run, so he can aim for all titles except for stolen bases (tied for 37th).
The lead and the gap are also small. Hits are 2 with Kim Hye-seong (Kiwoom, 72), RBIs are 11 with Park Dong-won (LG, 45), runs scored with Choi Jeong (SSG, 50) and 15, on-base percentage is 0.033 with Hong Chang-gi (LG, 0.426) , slugging percentage was 0.112 with Park Dong-won (LG 0.582), and the on-base percentage was visible.
In this way, Lee Jung-hoo’s two-straight KBO MVP challenge was no longer an absurdity. Lee Jung-hoo won 5 batting crowns (most hits, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and RBI) last year and became the first KBO league MVP in his life. This year, with a batting average of 0.218 for a month in April, I was worried that it might adversely affect the major league challenge scheduled after the season, let alone the MVP, but I was not literally ‘concerned about Lee Jung-hoo’.
If Lee Jung-hoo continues his hot batting pace and wins the MVP, he will become the first player since Park Byeong-ho (37, KT Wiz) in 2012 with the Heroes to win the MVP even with a batting average of less than 0.220 in April.
The way to find the hitting pace was a little different. Park Byeong-ho, who played for Nexen (currently Kiwoom) in 2012, also had a batting average of 0.218 (19 hits in 87 at-bats) for the month of April. On April 14, 2012, in the Daegu Samsung match, the batting average was 0.100, and even the 10% batting average almost collapsed. However, on April 27 of that year, he got out of the 10% batting average by concentrating on 3 long hits with 3 hits and 2 RBIs in 4 at-bats, including a home run and 2 doubles, against Hanwha in Cheongju.
Afterwards, Park Byeong-ho succeeded in reviving with long hits, including 7 home runs in May and 5 home runs in June. The final result was a batting average of 0.290 (136 hits in 469 at-bats) in 133 games, 31 home runs, 105 RBIs, 76 runs scored, 20 stolen bases, an on-base percentage of 0.393, and a slugging percentage of 0.561. He won three batting crowns (home run, RBI, slugging percentage) and won the first MVP in his life.
What remains to be seen in the second consecutive MVP victory is for Kiwoom hitters to regain their sense of hitting. It is impossible to recapture the title with the support of teammates for RBI and scoring. Lee Jung-hoo declared that he had already found the perfect sense. Immediately after the victory against SSG on the 4th, he said, “I was always in good condition, but it was great that I was depressed psychologically. But now, when I see the ball, the bat goes out. He said, “Now (the feeling of hitting) seems to have completely returned. It’s not just a record. From the NC game in May, there have been hits that you can agree with even if you get out. Now I can feel it.”