MIAMI — The Dodgers’ largest participant waited for his or her smallest one within the visiting dugout at LoanDepot Park on Monday night time.
Then, the 2 shared a celebratory embrace.
Like many Asian-born gamers in recent times, Hyeseong Kim has lengthy regarded as much as Shohei Ohtani. The South Korean infielder adopted the Japanese famous person’s profession whereas starting his personal baseball journey within the Korean Baseball Group. When Kim signed with the Dodgers after being posted for main league golf equipment through the offseason, the prospect to play alongside Ohtani and the membership’s different assortment of famous person gamers was some of the engaging appeals.
Within the Dodgers’ 7-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday, Kim lastly shared a beginning lineup with Ohtani for the primary time, getting his first big-league begin after being referred to as up this weekend.
And through the prime of the fifth inning, the 2 co-starred in a sequence that put the sport out of attain — Kim amassing his first MLB hit on a leadoff single, earlier than Ohtani hit a house run that made the rating 5-0.
After rounding the bases following his ninth blast of the season, Ohtani returned to the dugout and was greeted by a line of high-fives from teammates. Trailing a number of steps behind him, Kim did the identical.
When the 2 lastly met — Ohtani’s hulking 6-foot-3 construct towering over Kim’s wiry 5-10 body — Ohtani put each his palms on his new teammate’s helmet, then cracked a large smile whereas playfully leaping up and down.
A second to recollect; on a day that, for the 26-year-old Kim, was stuffed with them in a formidable on-field show.
Drawn into the beginning lineup to face Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara, a former Cy Younger Award winner working his approach again from a Tommy John surgical procedure, Kim flashed all of the instruments that prompted the Dodgers to provide him a three-year, $12.5-million contract.
Dodgers second baseman Hyeseong Kim throws to first through the first inning Monday in opposition to the Marlins.
(Marta Lavandier / Related Press)
He recorded two hits, following his opposite-field line drive within the fifth with a bloop RBI single an inning later. He stole his second profession base, racing to second two pitches earlier than Ohtani’s residence run, simply as he had as a pinch-runner the night time earlier than. He nearly had a defensive internet gem at second base, as nicely, charging to discipline a sluggish grounder within the eighth inning earlier than flipping a toss along with his glove that Freddie Freeman dropped at first base.
The Dodgers (24-11) had loads of different contributors Monday. They acquired two hits every from Freeman (together with a third-inning residence run), Mookie Betts (his fifth multi-hit recreation out of the final six), Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernández (who left the sport early with left hamstring tightness). They acquired 4 strong innings of bulk aid from Ben Casparius, the rookie right-hander who has been stretched out to compensate for the Dodgers’ banged-up rotation.
However nobody’s efficiency was as significant as Kim’s. He acquired his first profession hit, his first profession RBI and a short, joyful second celebrating with one of the best participant within the recreation.
