TOKYO,-- With his second home run in as many days at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Friday in Tokyo, South Korean catcher Yang Eui-ji continued to rewrite the narrative on what had been a lackluster international career.
Yang smacked a two-run home run off Japanese ace Yu Darvish in the top of the third inning of the teams' Pool B game at Tokyo Dome. The blast to the left field gave South Korea a 2-0 lead.
The ball left Yang's bat at 103.1 miles per hour and traveled 372 feet, with a launch angle of 31 degrees.
Yang had been the lone bright spot for South Korea in Thursday's 8-7 loss to Australia. He hit a three-run home run that turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead and was the only Korean with multiple hits.
In 83 at-bats in 31 international games before this week, Yang had just one home run and a paltry .169 batting average -- a shockingly bad number for the perennial MVP candidate in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). He has a .307 lifetime average in the South Korean league and has hit at least 20 home runs in each of the past five years.
Mindful of Yang's recent struggles -- he had gone 3-for-22 at the Olympics last year and 2-for-23 at the Premier12 in 2019 -- manager Lee Kang-chul had long declared he would put Yang in the lower part of the order, instead of batting him in the middle. That way, Yang wouldn't feel as much pressure to produce at the plate, all the while handling his usual set of responsibilities as catcher.
Yang batted eighth Thursday and again Friday. Though the move didn't pay off in the way of a win Thursday, Yang produced some much-needed pop from the bottom third of the order.
There is no doubting Yang's credentials as the most complete backstop in the KBO, a great game caller who can also make an impact with his bat.
And in this "What have you done for me lately?" world of international competitions, Yang's two home runs in the past two games should be enough to change the narrative around the catcher.
Source: Yonhap News Agency