Giants' Lee Jung-hoo has five-hit game in Korean first for MLB

Outfielder Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants on Sunday became the first Korean player in MLB history to record five hits in a game.

The five-hit outburst, at Coors Field in Denver against the Colorado Rockies, lifted Lee's batting average to .304, surpassing the .300-threshold for the first time in 33 days.

Lee tallied five hits in six at-bats with two RBIs and a run scored.

He has been swinging a hot bat since returning from the injured list on Friday after being sidelined due to muscle tightness in his lower back. On Friday, Lee recorded four hits in his first game back, and added two more the following day. He then recorded five hits on Sunday.

While he had previously notched four hits a game on four occasions since his MLB debut, he had never reached five.

During his KBO League career, he recorded a five-hit game against the LG Twins on Aug. 11, 2018.

In Sunday’s game, with two outs and runners on first and third in the opening inning, Lee drove in a run with a single.

Facing a 1-1 count, he lined a 92-mile-per-hour four-seam fastball from Rockies starter Tanner Gordon into center field in the first inning. After flying out to left in the third inning, Lee delivered a hit again in the fifth. With the Giants leading 4-3, he drilled a 94-mile-per-hour fastball from right-hander Zach Agnos off the wall in right-center for his 12th double of the season.

In the fifth inning, the Giants piled up hits and scored seven runs. 

Batting again later in the fifth, Lee added a single to center field. He followed with an RBI single in the seventh with one out and a runner on second. In the eighth, Rockies catcher Brett Sullivan took the mound and lobbed a 50-mile-per-hour pitch. Lee lined it into center field for yet another single, which marked his fifth hit of the game. 

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY KIM HYO-KYOUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]