Professional baseball Lotte Giants infielder Jung Hoon led the team to an 8-7 victory by hitting a winning home run in an away game against the Samsung Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park on the 3rd. 사설토토
In the ninth inning with the score tied 6-6, Jung pulled the second slider (126 kilometers) at the count of 1B-0S with Samsung setup man Kim Jae-yoon, and the ball count at 1B-0S, leading to a two-point arch to the left wall. Lotte defeated Samsung 8-7 to lead its second consecutive win after losing five consecutive games.
“Players kept their focus until the end and did a good job even in difficult situations. Jung Hoon not only hit the winning home run but also managed to defend the third base, not the main position,” Kim Tae-hyung said in a round of applause.
“Before I entered the batter's box in the ninth inning, the coach and the batting coach told me to enter the batter's box only for a fastball or a breaking ball. Anyway, I swung boldly at the ball count in favor of two outs, and luckily I ended up with a home run,” Jung-hoon told reporters.
Lotte remains at the bottom of the standings. “I desperately want to win a game,” said Jung Hoon, who said he and Jun-woo (former) often say, “We need to support and make our juniors comfortable because there are many young players.” However, I felt very frustrated and felt sorry for my juniors because baseball didn't work out as I wanted.
He then expressed his hope, “I hope that I will become a senior who my juniors can lean on little by little like today and help the team's performance improve.”
“As I've been losing games a lot lately, my juniors were under a lot of stress about the result of the game. It was sad because I felt like they were playing with too much weight,” Jung said. “I told my juniors, ‘You just have to do what you have to do. The result is for veterans like me and Jun-woo to take responsibility for it.”
Jung-hoon, who is close to Lee Dae-ho from Lotte's perpetual absentee legend, said, “You always contact me a lot. You express your affection for me with heavy words. Even though I said I don't watch baseball, I know exactly what I did. If the result is not good, I don't mind a fact-bombing.”
Lee Dae-ho, who appears on JTBC's entertainment program “The Greatest Baseball,” also shouts at Jung-hoon, “I'm a good player, what are you doing? Wake up.” Of course, when Jung-hoon can't participate in the game, he encourages him by saying, “You have to prepare well so that you can get a chance.”
At the end of the interview, Jung-hoon said, “I am receiving greetings from my juniors and receiving a lot of salary in the sense of supporting them (for them) on the ground, but now I think I can understand their feelings a little bit. If I work harder, I think my juniors will follow me. This is not the level where our team will be like this. I will do my best to win a lot.”
