[Sports Chosun’s Kwon In-ha]”How good is Han Dong-hee against us….”

KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-cheol was surprised when Lotte Giants’ Han Dong-hee was left off the roster on the fifth, a day off. For KT, Han Dong-hee was a key player.메이저놀이터

Lotte removed Han from the first team roster after she showed no signs of rebounding for two months. In 43 games this season, Han was batting just 2-for-36 (173 at-bats) with two home runs and 20 RBIs.

Last year, she batted a whopping 4-for-22 in the month of April. He had more hits in April last year (38) than he has in both months this year (36). After batting 1-for-6 in April (12-for-71), Han improved to 2-for-7 in May (20-for-72), and then went 4-for-10 in three games in June, which wasn’t bad, but manager Larry Sutton thought it was time for a break.

“He struggled at the plate for two months,” Sutton said of Han. She’s had some good at-bats, but it hasn’t been consistent. However, she showed a lot of good concentration in defense,” Sutton said. “We decided to give her some time in the second team to reset mentally and technically to regain the good form she had last year and look at the areas where she struggled.”

The 2023 KBO League game between the Lotte Giants and the KIA Tigers was held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on April 2. Lotte second baseman Han Dong-hee celebrates after hitting a single in the second inning.
However, before the game against KT, it was decided to send Han Dong-hee to the second team. KT called a blessing in disguise. The tricky hitter was gone.

Han Dong-hee was strong against KT. In 2021, she batted 2-for-9 with 14 RBIs in 47 at-bats against KT, the third-best average behind Kiwoom (0.308) and Samsung (0.300). Last year, he was the best hitter against KT, batting .309 with 19 RBIs in 48 at-bats. This year, he is also batting 2-for-7 with one home run and three RBIs in 22 at-bats against KT, the second-best batting average after KIA (.276, 29-for-8).

“She’s a really good hitter for us,” KT manager Lee Kang-cheol said, “I can’t remember a hitter who hit impressively well from the opposing side. She was the kind of hitter who hit one by one when it mattered.”

Han Dong-hee also did well against Ko Young-pyo, who started on the sixth day, going 2-for-6. In the three years since 2021, she was batting 2-for-8 with a home run and three RBIs in 14 at-bats against Ko.

However, Lotte decided to give him time to reset by looking at his hitting alone, without considering the opposing team.
In the absence of Han Dong-hee, KT got seven innings of one-run ball from Ko Young-pyo, followed by one inning each from Park Young-hyun and Kim Jae-yoon in relief, to win 4-1. Lotte was held to just four hits against KT, which didn’t help starter Park Se-woong, who pitched six innings of two-run ball.

It would have been nice to delay Han Dong-hee’s demotion to the second team until after the three-game series against KT, but what ifs are meaningless because it’s already happened. After being sent down to the second team, Han Dong-hee went 2-for-5 with a home run in a Futures League game against the Samsung Lions on June 6.