Kim Do-yeong of the Kia Tigers celebrates after hitting a homer at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Aug. 12.KIA TIGERS
Kia Tigers hitter Kim Do-yeong is poised to pull away in the KBO home run race.
Kim hit his 34th homer of the season, a go-ahead solo shot, in Kia’s home game against the Samsung Lions at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Wednesday.
Leading off the bottom of the third with the score tied 2-2, Kim pounced on a fastball from Samsung starter Austin Voth and drove it over the left-center-field wall. The ball traveled 125 meters (410 feet).
It was his 34th home run of the season and his first in two games and 13 days, since going deep against the NC Dinos in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, on July 31.
Kim widened his lead over LG Twins slugger Austin Dean, who ranks second with 31 home runs, to three.
Kim played a decisive role in Kia’s 7-2 victory. He also needs just four more home runs to match his career-high 38, which he set in 2024. He is now on pace for the first 40-homer season of his career.
Kia Tigers' Kim Do-yeong hits a ball with his bat during a match against the Samsung Lions in Daegu on July 30.YONHAP
Kim has been selected for the Korean national team for the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026, which begin in mid-September. He will be away from his club for about two weeks beginning Sept. 14 and will be unable to play in the league games during that stretch.
Until the middle of the season, Kim and Deanwere locked in such a close race for the home run lead that missing two weeks appeared likely to put Kim at a serious disadvantage. But if Kim keeps hitting home runs at his current pace and Dean slows down, Kim could still compete for the home run title after he returns to the Tigers.
Kia also received home runs from Park Jae-hyun, who hit his 14th of the season with a solo shot in the sixth, and Ha Ju-suk, who hit his first with a two-run homer in the seventh. The victory lifted Kia past the Doosan Bears into fourth place and secured a winning series against second-place Samsung in their three-game midweek set.
Kia’s foreign pitcher James Naile earned his eighth win of the season against five losses. He allowed two runs on six hits while striking out seven over seven innings.
Samsung’s Voth, on the contrary, struggled through four innings and surrendered four runs, taking the loss for the third time in as many appearances since his Korean league debut. Samsung has lost three straight.
Elsewhere, the NC Dinos beat the KT Wiz 3-0 at home in Changwon behind Koo Chang-mo’s seven scoreless innings, which snapped a six-game losing streak against KT. League-leading KT saw its seven-game winning streak come to an end.
The last-place Kiwoom Heroes rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to overcome a 1-3 deficit and earn a dramatic 4-3 victory over LG at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul.
The SSG Landers routed the Lotte Giants 9-1 at home in Incheon to extend their winning streak to 3. Starter Kim Min-jun allowed one run over six innings to earn his fifth victory of the season against two losses.
BY BAE YOUNG-EUN [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
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.
