Was it that good? Jose Abreu (36, Houston Astros) hit a home run and quickly turned around the ground. Even the Americans were surprised.
On the 29th (Korean time), in the 2023 major league match against the Oakland Athletics held at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California, USA, Abreu started as a 5th first baseman and scored 1 hit (1 home run) and 1 RBI in 4 at-bats. .
Abreu, who struck out in the first at-bat in the second inning, stopped shortstop’s ground ball in the second at-bat in the fourth inning. In the 6th inning, when the team was ahead 4-1, the right fielder left the first base with a foul fly.
But he didn’t just walk away in his final at-bat. In the top of the 8th inning, with the team leading 6-1, Sam Long’s 3rd pitch slider was hit and passed over the left fence. After 51 games, the beastly home run of the season hit.
It is also his first home run in 260 at-bats since the game against Colorado on September 14 last year while wearing the Chicago White Sox uniform. He finally broke the record for the longest run without a home run in his career.
Is that why? After hitting the home run, Abreu was so happy that he ran around the ground very quickly. Usually when you hit a home run, you run slowly, but Abreu quickly circled the diamond, stepped on the home run, and then slid toward his teammates standing in front of the dugout and held a ceremony.
MLB.com reported, “Abreu didn’t look at the batted ball. He ran the base non-stop at 26.2 feet per second (about 8 m).” He took just 17.6 seconds to come home.
Houston coach Dusty Bager said, “Abreu was just happy, and the team was happy for that.”
“When he hit first base, he knew it was a home run,” Abreu laughed. “That’s when I hit the switch.”
Abreu, a Cuban right-handed first baseman, wore a White Sox uniform on an international amateur contract. After his debut in 2014, he only worked for the White Sox for 9 years until last year. He played consistently with a batting average of 0.292, 1445 hits, 243 homers, 863 RBIs and an OPS of 0.860 in 1270 career games. He won the 2014 American League (AL) Rookie of the Year Award and the 2020 MVP Award. He was a three-time All-Star, a three-time Silver Slugger, and a hard hitter who was first in RBI and slugging percentage twice.토토사이트
Last year, in 157 games, he recorded a batting average of 0.304, 183 hits, 15 home runs, and 75 RBIs, an OPS of 0.824. After the season, he became a free agent and signed with Houston instead of staying in Chicago. His contract is for 3 years and the amount is 60 million dollars.
His start with his new team was not good. He has a batting average of 0.214 with 42 hits, 1 home run and 19 RBIs with an OPS of just 0.537. Now, attention is focusing on whether he will be able to raise his momentum as much as he hit his first home run.