Choi Hyung-woo (41, KIA) said, “It was the first time I’ve been so scared while playing baseball.”
Choi Hyung-woo started the game against SSG at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 27th and hit a home run with two outs and one base in the bottom of the first inning. When SSG starter Roenis Elias’ third pitch 125km/h slider came into the middle with a ball count of 1-1, he hit it as it was and hit a superior two-run home run.
Choi Hyung-woo, who was treated and rehabilitated after being excluded from the entry due to fine damage to his internal oblique muscles against KT on the 6th, recovered quickly, and despite coach Lee Bum-ho’s “dissuasion,” he proceeded faster than expected to train batting, put him into practice, and return to the first team.
Choi Hyung-woo, who started technical training from the 21st and normalized all batting training after receiving the opinion that 80% of the damaged area was recovered as a result of the re-examination on the 19th, returned to the first team in the SSG match after going to the Futures League game from the 23rd after two days of training. 스포츠토토
As soon as he returned home, he played as designated hitter in his fourth position, and hit a two-run homerun in his first at bat in the first inning. With his 20th homer of this season, Choi has hit 28 homeruns in this season, marking the first 20 homeruns in four years since 2020. More than anything else, Kia raced ahead with this homerun. In the bottom of the second inning, Byun Woo-hyuk and Park Chan-ho made timely hits to lead the team 4-0.
This precious home run and KIA’s lead could disappear in an instant. The moment KIA took the opportunity to score again with the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the fourth inning with a 4-0 lead, the rain became so strong that the game was suspended. For 52 minutes, everyone looked up at the sky with a tarpaulin on the ground.
After the game, Choi Hyung-woo said, “When it rains while playing, I just go inside the locker room and rest looking at my phone. I was like, rain or not, but in the fourth inning, I was really, really scared. I put it down because I was so nervous, but after about 30 minutes, it suddenly stopped raining. The sky really helped me,” adding, “I’ve never rained when I hit a home run in baseball for this long.” “Now I know how I feel (afraid of no games).”
As Choi said, Kia won the game with good luck. After being suspended for 52 minutes with the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Kia continued to run 10-0 after the game resumed, and when it was about to enter the top of the sixth inning with a 10-4 lead, heavy rain poured down again. The game, which was suspended for 32 minutes, ended in a rainfall call, and KIA won the game.
KIA played the game at a time when the injury to foreign first starter James Nail greatly weakened the mound’s power and the atmosphere crashed. Choi Hyung-woo, who returned from injury, hit 20 home runs in four years by hitting the winning shot from his first at-bat, and Yang Hyun-jong took the mound again in the fifth inning with 52 minutes suspended in the fourth inning, winning 10 games again in two years as he pitched a complete game of the rainfall cold game without using up the bullpen.
When the team feels a sense of crisis, the home run that Choi Hyung-woo hit back is very precious. KIA players are so desperate that Choi Hyung-woo made them feel the rain for the first time in their lives.
