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| Jae-il Oh of Samsung Lions in professional baseball. /News1 © News1 Reporter Jeong Sik |
Pro baseball Samsung Lions play’Geopo’ Oh Jae-il as the second batter against SSG Landers. This is an experiment in preparation for the regular season.
Samsung manager Heo Sam-young met with reporters ahead of the 2021 KBO League pilot match against SSG at Incheon SSG Landers Field and said, “Oh Jae-il will start as the second batter.”
To Jae-il Oh, the second hitter is an unfamiliar batting order. Oh Jae-il, who has excellent long-strike skills, such as hitting double-digit home runs for six consecutive seasons, mainly played the third or fifth hitter at the Doosan Bears.
However, coach Heo placed Oh Jae-il in the second batting order against SSG, where Park Jong-hoon started.
Heo said, “I put Kim Sang-soo, who is strong in an underhand pitcher, in the 1st batter, and Koo Ja-wook, who played a good role against Park Jong-hoon, in the 3rd batter. Among them, I’m trying to see what effect Oh Jae-il will do.” It’s one of the processes,” he explained.
Kim Sang-soo hit a batting average of 0.320 against the submarine pitcher last year, and Ja-wook Koo was strong with a batting average of 0.714 (7 at bats and 5 hits) in the confrontation with Park Jong-hoon.
Samsung, who steadily prepares for the season and is undefeated with 1 win and 2 draws in the demonstration game, is attracting attention this season as it is mentioned as a second place candidate ahead of the season opening.
In response, coach Heo said, “In the demonstration game, each team does not put up all the leading players. The ranking of the demonstration game does not mean much,” and “It would be good to just keep the good atmosphere right now until the opening game.”