Padres' Kim Ha-seong looking forward to 'fun' matchup vs. S. Korean pitcher

▲ In this Associated Press photo, Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres celebrates his solo home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in the bottom of the second inning of a Major League Baseball regular season game at Petco Park in San Diego on May 15, 2021. (Yonhap)

▲ In this Associated Press photo, Kim Kwang-hyun of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers in the bottom of the first inning of a Major League Baseball regular season game at American Family Field in Milwaukee on May 11, 2021. (Yonhap)

MLB-S Koreans

Padres' Kim Ha-seong looking forward to 'fun' matchup vs. S. Korean pitcher

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, May 16 (Yonhap) -- Due to his seasonlong slump at the plate, Kim Ha-seong's first season in the majors hasn't been all that fun. But the San Diego Padres' infielder now has something to look forward to: a matchup against a fellow Korean.

The Padres will host the St. Louis Cardinals to wrap up their three-game series at Petco Park in San Diego on Sunday (local time), and they'll face South Korean left-hander Kim Kwang-hyun.

The first pitch is 4:08 p.m. Sunday in San Diego, and 8:08 a.m. Monday in South Korea.

Kim, the pitcher, will be making his sixth start of the season. Kim, the batter, has seen his playing time increase recently at shortstop, with the incumbent Fernando Tatis Jr. sidelined following a positive COVID-19 test.

Should Ha-seong make his sixth consecutive start at shortstop, it will set up the first Korean pitcher-batter duel in the majors since April 2019.

"Kwang-hyun was a good pitcher in Korea and he's been doing well in the U.S., too," Kim Ha-seong said in his pregame Zoom interview on Saturday. "It's going to be fun tomorrow. I faced him a lot in Korea."

Kim Kwang-hyun signed with the Cardinals in December 2019 after 13 years in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). Kim Ha-seong played in the KBO for seven seasons before joining the Padres in December last year. They faced each other in the KBO 31 times, and Ha-seong batted 10-for-30 with a walk, four RBIs, a double and a run scored. He struck out five times and hit into one double play.

In their most recent KBO season together, in 2019, Ha-seong went 6-for-12 at the plate against the left-hander.

However, he isn't about to let his guard down, saying, "I think Kwang-hyun has made some mechanical changes since coming over here."

Kim blasted his second home run of the season later Saturday in a 13-3 Padres' victory over the Cardinals. It was his only hit in five trips to the plate. He's still batting just .195/.236/.293 for the season.

Kim Kwang-hyun is 1-0 with a 2.74 ERA in five starts this season. The Cardinals have won all five of those games.

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