The first game of the second half of professional baseball and the day of his return from injury was the best day for Choi Jeong (36, SSG Landers) when everything went smoothly.
Choi Jeong-eun started as the highlighted hitter in the away game against the LG Twins in Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League on the 21st. The day was held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, and scored three hits, one foot, two RBIs and one run in four at-bats, including the last match, which led SSG to a 6-4 win.
The SSG won the first game of the second half with Choi Jung’s strong hit and scored 47 wins, 1 draw and 32 losses, and chased the leader LG (49 wins, 2 draws and 31 losses) with 1.Five games.
On that day, SSG had a valuable income beyond Choi Jeong’s comeback victory.
Choi Jeong-eun, the 5th. Once injured while defending against the KlA Tigers, he was diagnosed with spinal muscular dystrophy and retired from the army. The SSG also felt Choi Jung’s place as they lost 1 win and 4 losses in the last 5 games in the first half of the match against KIA on the 5th.
Fortunately, Choi Jeong, who was not seriously injured, recovered quickly and joined the first team in time for the first game of the second half. And he washed away his concerns about his real sense of the game and delivered a great blow.
From his first at-bat, he hit Casey Kelly’s first pitch and hit the middle left, and in the top of the 5th inning, where the score was 2-2, he hit Kelly’s first pitch with 2 outs and 2nd base, and hit the final double.
And in the 7th inning, 1 out 1 base, chased by 5-4, Ham Deok-joo’s changeup was well hit and connected with an RBI double that fell inside the right field line.
After the game, coach Kim Won-hyung applauded, saying, “(Choi) Jeong-i led the attack by scoring 4 runs, including the final hit. It was his first game after returning from injury, and he played well.”
Choi Jeong-do, who finished the comeback match in a good mood, made a bright expression. He said, “In fact, I was nervous because I hadn’t seen the pitch ball in a long time. I was very worried about whether I would be able to hit the pitcher’s ball, but fortunately in the first at-bat, a missed ball hit so I gained confidence.”
Then he smiled and said, “I thought I’d be disadvantaged if the count went too long, so I tried to compete quickly.
Choi Jeong was happy with the last stroke, too. He explained, “I felt the Bat was a little heavy because it was a real game after a long time. So I came up with the idea of hitting all the bullets that come into the strike zone quickly, but fortunately, the bat fits well.”
Since the team suffered while he was away, he was certainly determined to return, but he did not try to be too conscious of Choi Jeong-eun.
He said, “Baseball is an individual sport at first sight, but it’s a team sport. I don’t think the result can change much by myself. I didn’t think I had to lead the team as much to victory as I did today. I’ve tried to do my best according to my position and my game.”
Choi Jeong-eun, who added two RBIs that day, recorded 1427 RBIs, outnumbered Lee Dae-ho (1425 RBIs) and ranked third alone. The gap with Choi Hyung-woo (1507 RBIs, KIA Tigers), who took first place in this category, has also been narrowed to 80.
Given the days ahead, Choi Jeong is born in 1987, most likely to break the record for most RBIs in the KBO league, surpassing Choi Hyung-woo, born in 1983.
On this subject, Choi Jeong-eun said, “I would be honored and happy to break the career record. But I’m not just going to focus on breaking that record. I don’t even have time to think about it one game at a time.”