Baseball’s Kiwoom Heroes head coach Hong Won-ki cheered on the performance of new faces Park Soo-jong (25) and Ko Young-woo (23).

Kiwoom named Park Soo-jong (center field), Ronnie Dawson (left field), Kim Hye-sung (second base), Lee Joo-hyung (designated hitter), Choi Joo-hwan (first base), Ko Young-woo (third base), Kim Hwi-jip (shortstop), Lim Ji-yeol (right field), and Kim Jae-hyun (catcher) as its starting lineup for the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League against the LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Saturday. Ariel Hurtado is the starting pitcher.

Second-year outfielder Park Soo-jong returned to the leadoff spot after three games. Park, who was promoted to the first team in the second half of last season, batting 4-for-2 with 19 RBIs (19-for-45), three runs scored, seven RBIs and a .993 OPS in 23 games, has struggled this season, batting 1-for-7 with six RBIs (6-for-34), two runs scored, 바카라사이트 five RBIs and a .419 OPS in 15 games.

Manager Hong Won-ki said in an interview before the game

“Park Soo-jong’s goal is to get a lot of runs. He’s been hitting well, but unfortunately, the results haven’t come. Today’s LG starter is a left-handed pitcher (Dietrich Enns) and Lee Yong-kyu is in a bit of a slump, so I put Park Soo-jong in the starting lineup,” he said, explaining why he used Park.

“We talked to him because he was too impatient from the Taiwan camp,” said Hong Won-ki. “Last fall, he was desperate, but this year, he was impatient to secure the starting spot from the camp, so he was bound to reach for bad pitches and get disappointing results. So I told him to relax a little bit and play baseball. I think he needs to be a little more relaxed and have the mindset to make plays in order to play steadily.”

College rookie infielder Go Young-woo, who joined Kiwoom in the fourth round (39th overall) of the 2024 Rookie Draft, is batting .370 (24-for-64) with seven RBIs, seven runs scored and an .867 OPS in 25 games. “He has power in his bat for his size,” said Hong Won-ki. When I see him in batting practice, he is definitely a hitter who can put power into his batting,” said Hong Won-ki, praising Ko Young-woo’s hitting ability.

Go Young-woo’s real value is his defense.

“Hitting is important, but in the end, I think the stability of defense is the first thing to survive in the pros,” said Hong Won-ki. Thanks to his steady defense, he has been mentioned from the opening game of the season until now,” said Hong.

Go has been playing mostly at third base this season (16 games), but he has also played shortstop (4 games) and second base (6 games). Manager Hong Won-ki said, “I tried to use him as a shortstop in Daejeon, but he played shortstop on the first day and felt a little discomfort in his adductor muscle, so I sent him to third base. Looking at his movements at shortstop, he was very stable in his routine play. It gives us options at different defensive positions in case we have an emergency situation in the future.”

Kiwoom has had a number of injuries this season. 안전놀이터 From veterans like Won Jong-hyun, Jeong Chan-heon, Lee Hyung-jong, and Lim Byung-wook to youngsters like Lee Jae-sang and Kim Dong-heon, all of them are out of the first team. “Jung Chan-heon has started pitching out of the bullpen for the first time,” said Hong Won-ki. Lee Jae-sang could join the team as early as the end of May and as late as early June. Lim Byung-wook is also reported to be able to play normally from May 20th. I think the injured players will start to come back in June,” he said, looking forward to the return of the injured players.