The bat of Victor Reyes (30), the “hit machine” of the Lotte Giants, does not cool down. Now, there are only four hits left to set the record for the most hits in the KBO League history.
Reyes started the home game against Doosan Bears of Shinhan SOL Bank in 2024 at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on Monday, and posted two hits, one RBI and one walk from four times at bat. Lotte was tightly tied to Doosan starter Kwak Bin (four hits, seven strikeouts and no run in six innings), but failed to turn the game around and lost 3-4.
Reyes, who had 196 hits before the game, started the hitting machine from his first at-bat in the first inning. With one out and no runners on base in the bottom of the first inning when his team was losing 0-3, Reyes hit Doosan starter Kwak Bin’s second pitch of 123km/h to post a hit to the midfielder.
Reyes, who had multiple hits against the Gwangju KIA Tigers the previous day (25th) and matched Lee Jong-beom (196 hits) in 1994, surpassed Lee Jong-beom by hitting his 197th hit from his first at-bat the very next day.
Reyes, who grounded out to a pitcher in the third inning and a fly ball to the right field in the fifth inning, added a hit with a long shot in the fourth at-bat in the seventh inning. When Lotte was trailing 0-4, it hit a double with an RBI that flows along the right field line by pushing a 129km/h slider against Doosan Bears’ Lee Byung-hun in the third pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs and a runner on the second base.
Reyes, who had his 198th hit of the season, surpassed Jose Miguel Fernandez’s 197 hits in 2019 and jumped to third place alone in the KBO League’s single-season most hits.
Now, in the history of the KBO League, only two players have had more hits than Reyes: Fernandez (199 hits) in 2020 and Seo Geon-chang (201 hits) in 2014. Seo Geon-chang surpassed the mark of 200 hits for the first time in the history of 128 games under the Nexen Heroes in 2014. 토토사이트
Reyes has consistently produced hits to the extent that he has never recorded a monthly batting average of less than 300. Although he played in all 141 games his team played, his batting average of 0.380. In the recent 10 games, he has posted a batting average of 0.415 (17 hits in 41 times at bat) and six multi-hits alone, amassing hits at a breakneck pace.
Reyes is now challenging his first ever record in the remaining three games. If he adds two more, he will surpass Fernandez to rank second in history, becoming the first foreign batter to hit 200 hits. If he adds four more, he will go beyond Seo Geon-chang to set a new record for the most hits in a KBO league in 10 years. Attention is focusing on whether Reyes, the “hit machine” from Venezuela, will be able to engrave his name in KBO history.
