Was he motivated to win when he threw an intentional pitch in front of the home run hitter? Lewin Diaz (28), a foreign hitter of the Samsung Lions, responded to KT Wiz’s plan to skip Koo Ja-wook with a home run, leading his team to escape three consecutive losses.
Diaz started as the fifth batter and first baseman in an away game against KT Wiz of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on the 18th and recorded one hit, one home run, three RBIs and one run from five times at bat. Samsung, with Diaz’s three-run shot in the finals, won 8-6, getting out of a three-game losing streak, and reduced its second-place magic number to “2.”
The game repeatedly showed that if Samsung ran away, KT would follow him. Samsung scored two runs first with a run scored by a third baseman when Lee Jae-hyun made a timely hit and Ryu Ji-hyuk had a double play in the top of the second inning, and Koo Ja-wook’s 31st solo home run of the season in the third inning gave a 3-0 run. Then, KT balanced 3-3 with Kim Sang-soo’s timely hit in the bottom of the third inning and Oh Jae-il’s run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Hwang Jae-kyun had a double play.
Samsung took a 4-3 lead again in the top of the fifth inning when Kim Ji-chan homered when Koo Ja-wook hit a grounder, with runners on the first and third bases with no outs. KT tied the game 4-4 again in the bottom of the fifth inning with Oh Jae-il’s grounder RBI, with runners on the second and third bases with one out. Samsung, which took the 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth inning with Kim Ji-chan’s timely hit, allowed Lim Chang-min to hit a solo shot to Hwang Jae-gyun in the bottom of the eighth inning.
In the last attack in the top of the ninth inning, Samsung had a chance to score a point with two outs and a runner on the second base thanks to Kang Min-ho’s walk after Kim Ji-chan had one out. In this situation, KT chose to automatically skip Koo Ja-wook, who is showing off his batting performance at his peak in September, with intentional pitches. The decision was made in consideration of the fact that the next batter, Diaz, was not feeling very good with his strikeouts, strikeouts, fly balls and ground balls on the day. 스포츠토토
As a result, KT’s “Googerdy” strategy became a failure. With the ball count 1-1, Diaz did not miss Son’s third pitch of 120 km/h and strongly hit the ball. The hit that was properly caught by the bat led to a three-run homer with a driving distance of 125 meters that flew over the fence. It was Diaz’s second consecutive homerun of the season and his seventh homerun of the season.
Samsung, which took the lead, allowed Kim Jae-yoon to hit a solo shot to leadoff hitter Jang Sung-woo in the bottom of the ninth inning, but won 8-6 by arranging the inning without additional runs.
Diaz, who signed a total of $170,000 (annual salary 50,000, option 20,000, transfer fee 100,000, etc.) with Samsung as a substitute for Ruben Cardenas on August 14, has played in 23 games and has a batting average of 0.289 (26 hits in 90 at-bats) with seven home runs and 19 RBIs with an OPS of 0.889, meeting the team’s expectations to some extent.
David McKinnon, who played 72 games in the first half of the season, has already surpassed the mark of four homers, and has caught up with the finishing hit (third inning). Diaz, who has hit two two-run shots and three-run shots among his seven homers, is showing off his instinct to be a troubleshooter at an important moment, wiping out the disappointment of his predecessors and becoming a blessing for Samsung.
