Padres' Kim Ha-seong eyes 20-20 club

Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres hit another home run and is now within reach of joining the 20-homer-20-steal club.

Kim stepped to the plate in the top of the eighth inning with two outs and no runners on base during a 0-2 loss to the visiting Cincinnati team in Major League Baseball (MLB). He then hit his 10th home run of the season. This marked Kim's fifth home run in his last 10 games. With this home run, Kim has reached double-digit home runs for the second consecutive year, following last year's tally of 11.

This 3-4 loss marked San Diego's 84th game out of 162 in the season. Kim is currently on pace for 19 home runs, but with his recent performance, reaching 20 doesn't seem out of reach. Interestingly, he hit more home runs in the second half of last year, with six, than in the first five months. Additionally, Kim is on track for 25 steals this season, having already accumulated 13.

Kim's “Wins Above Replacement per FanGraphs (fWAR)" is 2.6 as of today, which ranks 16th in the National League (NL) among pitchers and batters. However, despite his performance, he was not named to the NL All-Star roster, which was announced by the MLB office today.


Kyu-In Hwang kini@donga.com