Padres’ Kim Ha-seong hits 1st homer in 10 days; Pirates’ Bae Ji-hwan collects 2 hits

Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres has homered for the first time in 10 days, though his dinger came in a big loss for his club.

Kim smoked a solo home run against Miami Marlins starter Braxton Garrett during the bottom of the third inning at Petco Park in San Diego on Wednesday (local time). However, it ended up being the only run for the Padres in their 8-1 loss.

Batting ninth and playing shortstop, Kim led off the third inning with the solo shot to left-center field, his seventh home run of this season and first since May 19.

Kim turned on a 0-1 changeup and sent it 379 feet. The ball left Kim’s bat at 99.7 mph.

The Padres got seven other hits but only mustered that one run courtesy of Kim’s bat.

Kim is now batting .214 with an on-base plus slugging (OPS) of .693.

The one other active South Korean in the majors, Bae Ji-hwan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, enjoyed his first multihit game of the season.

Bae batted 2-for-4 and scored a run to help the Pirates beat the Detroit Tigers 10-2 in the second game of a doubleheader at Comerica Park in Detroit.

Bae started the season in the minors and was called up to the majors on May 21. This was Bae’s sixth game among the big boys.

Bae came off the bench in the first game against the Tigers and grounded out in his lone at-bat in the ninth inning.

Then he got the start in center field and batted eighth in the second game. He singled his first time up in the third inning and scored on a three-run home run by Andrew McCutchen later that inning.

After striking out in the fourth and the sixth, Bae got his second single of the game in the eighth inning.

He is now batting .267 with a .620 OPS.