“I feel confident and good because I hit a home run in the left and right at-bats.”
KT Wiz’s foreign hitter Mel Rojas Jr. returned to Korea after four years. Rojas displayed stellar performance by scoring multiple home runs in an exhibition game against the 2024 KBO Hanwha Eagles at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on Saturday.
Rojas, a switch-hitter, also had two blemishes at different times at bat. He pitched at the right batter’s box against Ricardo Sanés in the first inning, and Kim Gyu-yeon in the seventh inning had a homerun against the left. All of them were two-run homers. It was his first multi-homer game after returning to Korea, although it was an exhibition game.
LOHAS is a foreign hitter who comes to mind when it comes to KT. LOHAS joined KT as a substitute for Jonny Monell in June 2017. Upon arrival, LOHAS played in 83 games and had 101 hits, 18 homers, 56 RBIs and 52 runs, renewing his contract with KT. He had a batting average of 0.305 172 hits, 43 homers, 114 RBIs and 114 runs in 144 games in the 2018 season, and posted a batting average of 0.322 168 hits, 24 homers, 104 RBIs and 68 runs in 142 games in the 2019 season.
During the 2020 season, he had a batting average of 0.349 192 hits, 47 homers, 135 RBIs and 116 runs scored in 142 games. LOHAS was the most valuable player in the league, including the home run king, the RBI king, and the league’s MVP. He also won the outfielder Golden Glove in 2019 and 2020. While with KT, he dominated the KBO League with a batting average of 0.321633 with 132 homers, 409 RBIs and 350 runs scored with an OPS long-base plus on-base percentage of 0.982 in 511 games.
He moved to the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese pro baseball league, but failed to display stellar performance. After posting a career batting average of 0.220 to 17 home runs, he was kicked out of the Japanese league. Afterwards, he played in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, before joining hands with KT again. The total amount is 900,000 U.S. dollars with KT.
Although it is an exhibition game, his record is not bad. He has a batting average of 0.313, five hits, three homers, seven RBIs and four runs in six exhibition games. Notably, he had all five hits, long hit, two doubles, and three homers.
Rojas said, “I’m improving my condition in time for the regular season. I feel confident and good because I hit home runs at the right and left at bat today at a good timing.”
“After coming to KBO for the first time in four years, the average speed of young pitchers has improved, and the overall level has increased,” he said. “I think we need to study and prepare a lot for the ball combination and characteristics of opposing pitchers during the week remaining until the opening.” 메이저 토토사이트