LG Twins’ Oh Ji-hwan hit his fourth career grand slam home run and led his team to victory with a strong performance on offense.
Oh started at shortstop in the No. 6 spot against SSG on Sunday at Jamsil Stadium. He went 2-for-4 with two doubles, one home run, and five RBIs. He also played a strong game on defense to prevent runs. LG jumped out to an early 11-1 lead after four innings and cut the deficit to 11-8 in the seventh, but held on for a 12-9 victory.
LG put runners on first and second with singles by Hong Chang-ki and Austin against SSG starter Kim Kwang-hyun in the first inning. Moon Bo-kyung hit a one-out double off the left-field fence, and Park Dong-won made it 2-0 with an infield single to the pitcher’s mound on the third base side. With runners on first and third, Oh Ji-hwan hit a grounder to the first baseman to bring home the third run.
LG loaded the bases in the third inning with Kim Hyun-soo singling to right-center, Austin singling to left and Moon Bo-kyung walking. Park Dong-won struck out to end the inning. The worst thing that can happen in a bases-loaded situation is for the first batter to strike out. The pressure is on the next batter.
Oh Ji-hwan hit a two-pitch slider off Kim Kwang-hyun for a three-run home run over the right-center field wall. It was the fourth walk-off home run of his career. Oh previously hit a grand slam off Kim Kwang-hyun on September 6, 2022, at Jamsil Stadium. Two years later, he hit a grand slam off Kim Kwang-hyun again.
Kim Bum-seok followed with a back-to-back home run over the left-field fence off Kim Kwang-hyun’s first pitch.
LG went up 8-0.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Oh Ji-hwan singled to right field with nobody out to put runners on first and second. In the bottom of the sixth, he was stranded at second base on a grounder to shortstop.
SSG scored a run in the fourth inning. Han Yoo-seom singled to center and Go Myung-joon singled to right-center to put runners on first and third with no outs. 메이저사이트 Park Sung-eun struck out. Lee Ji-young hit a slow ball that Oh Ji-hwan raced out and dropped once, but he quickly caught it and threw to first for the out. The runner from third scored. With two outs, Park Ji-hwan hit a line drive to shortstop Oh Ji-hwan, who slid to the second base side of the bag and threw to first for the out. It was a super catch that prevented a run from scoring.
After the game, Oh said of the walk-off home run, “I try to hit aggressively these days. “Pitchers are trying to get strikes in the first three pitches, so I try to be more aggressive, and the slider hit me at the right time. I just wanted to get an outfield fly and get a hit somehow,” he said.
“Even in the first at-bat (in the first inning), two and three runs is a big difference. I thought about that situation and tried to get some more hits,” he said.
In the bottom of the fourth inning,
He almost made a mistake in defense, but he handled it well and even made a super catch. When asked about his defense, Oh was embarrassed and said, “I got a little excited when I was fielding. I told the juniors to take it slow and just do one play, but I should have caught the runner in front of me (at second base), but I was greedy because when a ball is hit, you have to make a double play. So I came in boldly, but I was still a little greedy. Luckily, the next play was good,” he said with a laugh.
“I was also a little excited about Park Ji-hwan’s at-bat. I knew that Park Ji-hwan had been playing well lately, and I didn’t know if his stride was fast or slow, so I think I was in a bit of a hurry,” he explained.
Oh Ji-hwan, who was interviewed in front of the fans as a Soo-hoon player, said, “I don’t think I’ve done many interviews this season. It’s almost 90 games now, and I’ve only done one or two, so it wasn’t that influential. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, and it was very difficult in many ways. I had to put it down in the middle to relax my mind, and I think it was a bit difficult to catch it all.” He revealed his struggles.
“I didn’t go down to the second team because I wanted to go down, but when I was injured, I had a sense of purpose that I wanted to go back up again, and when I saw the players in the second team, I had a fighting spirit,” Oh said.