A strong impression of playing in the first game of the second half of the year. / A representative sloan starter... Reverse expectations / Choo Shin-soo, homerun season 15th for two consecutive days.
Kang Jung-ho, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, said, I feel sorry for in the first half of the 2019 season. He was the starting pitcher with a hard hit in exhibition games, but suffered from an extreme slump with a batting average of 0.170 in the first half. It was comforting to hit eight of the 24 hits with a home run to show his slugging power. The fact that he hit a single in all four games he played as a starter at the end of the first half of the first half also confirmed that his batting sense was rising also allowed him to look at a turnaround.
As he hoped, Kang made a big splash in his first game since the All-Star break, raising hopes for the second half. He started as the seventh shortstop in a visiting game against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, and hit a left-hand solo shot in the top of the fifth inning, when his team was far behind 0-10. With no one out, he entered the batter's box and drew a cool arch against Jonathan Lester, the Cubs' ace and starter. In the top of the seventh inning, Kang also completed his first multi-hits in the second half with an infield hit in the shortstop's direction. The team failed to overcome the massive loss early in the day and suffered a 4-10 defeat, but Kang left a strong impression with two hits, one RBI and one run scored in four at-bats.
Above all, Kang inflates hopes for a revival in that he is a typical slot starter who has always been much stronger in the second half. His overall batting average for the second half of the season is 0.289 and his OPS, which combines on-base and slugging percentage, is as high as 0.903, far higher than his batting average of 0.236 and OPS 0.737 in the first half. If he continues to play in the second half of the year by securing a stable starting opportunity through his performance in the second half of the year, there is ample room to make up for the huge slump in the first half.
Meanwhile, Choo Shin-soo of Texas Rangers, who started as the designated hitter in the Houston Astros' home game on the same day, hit his 15th solo home run of the season, when he pushed aside a 140-kilometer-per-hour cutter from left-hander Wade Miley in the bottom of the first inning, which was pushed back 0-2 by his opponent. He, who was also exceptionally strong in the second half of his career, hit a solo shot in the 13th, his first game since the All-Star game, and hit a ball over the fence for two consecutive days, continuing his good batting experience early in the second half.
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