Will a miracle happen.
KIA Tigers star Kim Do-young (21) will take on the last and last challenge to become the first Korean player to 40-40 in the KBO. KIA will wrap up the regular season through the game against the NC Dinos in Gwangju on Sunday and start preparing for the Korean Series. If Kim adds two homers on the day, Kim will achieve a dramatic 40-40 victory. 스포츠토토
After hitting his 38th homer of the season in the match against the Samsung Lions in Gwangju on Sunday, he failed to hit a homer in four consecutive games. He has three homers and a batting average of 0.375 days in the recent 10 games, showing good batting performance. However, he can’t hit a homer just because he wants to.
Kim’s latest hit tends to be towards the center. In fact, chances are high for a home run only when the hitting point is pulled forward to create more hits to the left. Though the probability of striking out also increases. In this regard, Kim has a good batting posture.
Yang Jun-hyuk, the legendary and “Yangshin” who dominated Korean baseball, analyzed Kim Do-young through his YouTube channel “Yangshin Yang Jun-hyuk” about two months ago. Through a video at the time, he expected Kim Do-young to hit 35-38 home runs this season.
Since it is the first full-time season, there is no way to arrange physical fitness and maintain pace, and it will not be easy to manage physical fitness. It seems that’s what happened. However, he added Kim Do-young’s story through a recent video analysis of Kim Young-woong (Samsung Lions), saying that he will hit 40 home runs “at ease” next year. The rosy outlook is that this season’s experience will be reflected in next year’s strong performance.
On the spot, he also expected that Kim would be able to steal 40 bases comfortably this year. Recently, when he asked Lee Bum-ho, “If I steal proper bases, I will just do 60,” he strongly sympathized. In the end, Lee Bum-ho’s analysis that the key is home runs was accurate.
Coach Lee Bum-ho recently predicted that Kim would be able to hit 40 home runs if he fights hard in Daejeon (against the Hanwha Eagles on April 27) and Busan (against the Lotte Giants on April 28). However, Kim has failed to hit home runs in Daejeon and Busan. Even if he is the world’s best, he will likely be conscious of home runs now. It is a battle against himself.
The starting pitcher of NC Dinosaurs is right-hander Son Joo-hwan (22). After graduating from Dong-A University, he joined the team as the 55th player in the sixth round in 2024. He pitched two innings in three games this season, and did not yield a single run without a hit. He has recorded just one dune. It is his first start in the first team since his debut in the first team. Though it is hard to gauge performance of the team, he is highly likely not to throw long innings. He also pitched in the Futures League only once this year. If NC holds its bullpen day, Kim Do-young is expected to continue to face other pitchers throughout the game.