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Final Up to date: March 20, 2024, 00:01 IST
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Shohei Ohtani has acquired essentially the most consideration as his Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres put together to launch the Main League Baseball season with the primary common season video games in South Korea.
SEOUL, South Korea: Shohei Ohtani has acquired essentially the most consideration as his Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres put together to launch the Main League Baseball season with the primary common season video games in South Korea.
However the two-game sequence beginning on Wednesday is also a triumphant homecoming for Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, coming off a dominant season and returning to the Gocheok Sky Dome.
Kim performed for the Kiwoom Heroes for seven seasons earlier than signing with San Diego in 2020. He performed down questions on being overshadowed by Ohtani, the Dodgers’ newly signed Japanese star, and mentioned his focus was serving to his staff get off to a constructive begin in opposition to division rivals.
“When an MVP-level participant arrives at a staff, after all the eye goes to go that means. Our staff has plenty of good gamers, too, and I feel Korean followers will simply love the truth that Main League Baseball is being performed in Seoul,” Kim mentioned Tuesday after a exercise on the stadium.
“The true video games begin tomorrow, so I’m targeted on maintaining myself in good situation. I labored laborious this 12 months to arrange, and I must carry out nicely.”
Kim hit .260 with 17 homers, 60 RBIs and 38 steals whereas establishing himself final season as top-of-the-line Nationwide League infielders on protection. He received his first Gold Glove as a utilityman, the primary time an infielder from east Asia received the award.
Regardless of a roster constructed with years of heavy spending, the Padres completed 82-20 and third within the NL West behind the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks, lacking the playoffs.
For the reason that loss of life of controlling proprietor Peter Seidler in November, the entrance workplace traded star outfielder Juan Soto to the New York Yankees and shunned spending large on free brokers. Former workers ace Blake Snell, the reigning NL Cy Younger Award winner, has a pending take care of the division rival San Francisco Giants.
Kim appears to be entering into a much bigger function. He began 98 video games at second base final season, 29 at third and 16 at shortstop, Supervisor Mike Shildt is attempting him because the common shortstop whereas shifting Xander Bogaerts to second base.
Throughout a voluntary exercise on Tuesday, Kim spent a lot of the time fielding balls from shortstop and training double-play strikes, drawing occasional cheers from teammates after fielding groundballs deep within the gap and firing precisely to first.
“Bogaerts is such an excellent participant, so if I do good, our chemistry will get higher,” Kim mentioned. “We see one another greater than our households and we’re a good bunch. Our gamers have labored laborious, so I feel we will certainly have a greater file than final 12 months. If we proceed to combat, we are going to push ourselves nearer to a championship.”
Kim has appeared sharp in apply video games in opposition to South Korean skilled gamers this week, hitting two residence runs in opposition to the reigning KBO champions LG Twins on Monday off pitchers he had confronted for years.
Ohtani, who went 0 for five in two exhibition video games in opposition to Korean opponents in Seoul, didn’t present up on the sphere for an non-compulsory exercise on Tuesday. Mookie Betts fielded batted balls from shortstop, the place he’s set to start out this season after making his first 16 appearances there final 12 months.
Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers’ opening-day starter, threw lengthy tosses from the outfield. Close by, Sport 2 starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, one other Japanese star Los Angeles signed within the offseason, went by means of his uncommon coaching routines, together with bounding rubber balls off the outfield wall and throwing small javelins.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Related Press)
