baseball-player
 |
| ▲ Park Hae-min of the LG Twins (R) celebrates after hitting a two-run home run against the SSG Landers during the bottom of the fourth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 27, 2023. (Yonhap) |
 |
| ▲ Park Hae-min of the LG Twins (C) high-fives catcher Park Dong-won following a 6-3 win over the SSG Landers in a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 27, 2023. (Yonhap) |
 |
| ▲ Park Hae-min of the LG Twins celebrates after hitting a two-run home run against the SSG Landers during the bottom of the fourth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on April 27, 2023. (Yonhap) |
baseball-player
Outfielder shakes off early slump with carefree approach
By Yoo Jee-ho
SEOUL, April 27 (Yonhap) -- With his second three-hit performance of the season Thursday, LG Twins outfielder Park Hae-min extended his hitting streak to nine games in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).
By now, Park's slow start to the 2023 campaign is a distant memory, and it's largely thanks to his carefree, "Whatever happens, happens" approach at the plate.
Park started the season batting 1-for-14. Through his first seven games, he was batting just .143.
Sixteen games later, Park's average is up to .324.
"I decided that, if I was going to struggle in April anyway, I might as well go down swinging," Park said after helping the Twins to a 6-3 win over the SSG Landers at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. "I thought I should try to be aggressive and just take my swing, and not worry about all the talk of my April slump."
Park said blocking out noise has done wonders.
"I've been getting hits even when I got jammed on pitches," Park said. "And because I've been able to focus on swinging the way I want to swing, I haven't been too stressed out even when I hit into outs."
Park, who has been mostly batting ninth this year, denied that his stress-free approach has anything to do with his place in the lineup.
"I just didn't want to get caught up in a cycle of negative thoughts," he said. "I can't really control where I hit in the lineup, because we have guys at the top of the order swinging the bat really well. The team is playing great, so I don't really care where I hit."
Park hit his third home run of the season in the fourth inning of Thursday's game and his second dinger in three days. The two-run shot, which gave the Twins a 3-2 lead, came against Landers starter Kim Kwang-hyun, Park's first career homer against the veteran left-hander in his 48th at-bat.
"It felt great to hit a home run off Kim Kwang-hyun. He's such a great pitcher, and I don't recall ever getting a hard-hit ball against him," said Park, who had been 12-for-46 (.261) against Kim prior to Thursday. "And it felt extra sweet to hit one in such an important spot."
Park also stole a base in Thursday's win but got picked off once, too. He has only had two steals in six attempts so far, a year after going 24-for-30.
"As good as the home run was, I am even more thrilled with the steal," Park said with a smile. "I know the whole team hasn't been very successful stealing bases, but we've never stopped running, and that's kept the other teams on their toes."
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
