Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bae Ji-hwan (24) hit a three-run homer in his major league debut to lead his team to victory.메이저사이트
Bae went 1-for-4 with a triple, a home run, an RBI and a run scored in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2023 Major League Baseball home game against the Milwaukee Brewers at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 7. Behind Bae’s performance, Pittsburgh came from behind to win 5-4 and avenge a loss the previous day.
After being retired on a two-pitch walk in the first inning, Bae stepped up to the plate with one out in the bottom of the third. After persistently drawing foul balls against Milwaukee starter Freddie Peralta and taking the game to seven pitches, Bae hit a fastball hard in the middle of the seventh, but a grounder to shortstop threw the runner out at second. With a runner on first, Bae failed to advance on the next pitch.
In the top of the sixth inning, Bae hit a four-pitch curveball on a 1-2 pitch count, but it was fouled off the third baseman. After three fruitless at-bats, Bae took his frustration out on his final at-bat.
With the score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Bae lined a three-pitch slider from Milwaukee bullpen pitcher Elvis Peguero to right-center field. As the ball rolled to the fence, the first baseman crossed home plate, and Bae sprinted past second base, paused for a moment, and then sprinted to third base before his helmet came off. It was Bae’s first major league triple in 338 at-bats.
Then, in the bottom of the seventh inning, with runners on second and third, Miguel Andujar hit a single up the middle, and Bae, who was on third base, came home with time to spare to give Pittsburgh a 5-3 lead.
Bae’s run proved to be a valuable one. Pittsburgh gave up a run in the top of the eighth inning to cut the deficit to 5-4, but the Pirates held on for the ninth without allowing another run to score. Bae’s RBI triple proved to be the game-winning hit and the extra-base hit proved to be the difference.
Avenging the previous day’s loss, Pittsburgh took two of three from first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central to improve to 65-75 (.464 winning percentage) on the season. With Pittsburgh’s loss, Milwaukee improved to 77-62 (.554) and moved to within 1.5 games of the NL Central’s second-place Chicago Cubs (76-64 (.543)), who have won four straight.