I played 2 people in 30 games. Austin Dean, a new foreign hitter from LG, completed the hits of Rio Ruiz and Mabel Garcia, who stayed on the team last year, in 30 games.
Austin scored 4 hits in 5 at-bats as a 4th hitter and 1st baseman in a game against the Kiwoom Heroes of the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 9th. Except for the at-bat in the bottom of the 7th inning against Kim Seong-jin, all hits were made. Multi-hits are tied for 10th with 10th, and there have already been 5 games with 3 or more hits.
Austin added 4 hits on the 9th, ranking second in the category with 41 hits for the season, following SSG Guillermo Heredia (44 hits). 41 hits. It’s a number you want to forget about LG, but you shouldn’t. Last year, foreign batters Ruiz and Garcia recorded 41 hits in 66 games. Austin did it in 30 games, less than half that.
It wasn’t even a starting pitcher. There were times when he couldn’t make it into the starting lineup due to heel pain, but he still did his part at the plate. On the 8th of last month, he hit a finishing double in the game against Samsung and made the hearts of LG fans beat. Even in April he had a high enough batting average of 0.351, a whopping 0.389 for four games in May.
Ruiz is a player brought by LG after noticing that he is a ‘spray hitter’. He had decent defense at both second and third base, but the bat was out of the count. In exhibition games, he had a batting average of 0.194. He had no turnaround in the regular season. He suddenly shoved his long hair back and showed a willingness to show up,토토사이트 but he had to leave the team with 13 hits in 27 games.
Garcia was recruited with the expectation that he would be a great gun equipped with one long shot. He seemed to adapt surprisingly quickly, hitting 6 hits in his first 5 games, but his presence disappeared after his weaknesses were exposed. Since September, there have been only 3 hits in 14 games. LG acknowledged its failure by releasing the replacement players it brought in before the end of the season.
I think I can forget about this failure now. Austin is giving LG strength with accurate hitting, stable first base defense, and affinity for any opponent. In the game on the 9th, he won 5-4, 10 overtime ends, and rose to second place.