‘Bok-do from Lotte’ is back… No fear of a broken nose “If I get hit again, I’ll have surgery”

KT Wiz slugger Lee Ho-yeon is back.

Lee Ho-yeon was called up to the KT Wiz squad for the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League against the KIA Tigers at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on April 9. It was his return to the first team 18 days after suffering a fractured nose.

Lee suffered the injury on March 21 against the Suwon Lotte Giants, fracturing a bone near his nose. Lee swung at a pitch from Na Kyun-ahn, and the ball hit near home plate, bounced, and struck Lee in the face. He complained of pain. He continued to play, but was in pain and was eventually replaced by Park Kyung-soo.

It was an unfortunate injury that came at a time when things were looking up for Lee. Lee came to KT from Lotte via trade in May. He hadn’t made a first-team appearance for Lotte this season, but in a KT uniform, he was hitting .286 with one home run, 10 RBIs, seven runs scored, and a .659 OPS before his injury.

On August 8, Lee went 3-for-3 with a home run against KIA in the KBO Futures League. After playing one game for the Futures, he was immediately recalled and started against KIA on September 9.

“I didn’t have any pain, so I tried to move around and it was fine. I wanted to play (baseball) as soon as possible, but I still have some pain,” Lee told the media before the game, adding, “I came up from Iksan after yesterday’s game. I arrived at 1 a.m. and fell asleep right away.”

Lee was hit in the face by a ball for the first time in his baseball career. He wasn’t too worried about the trauma, though: “It was my first hit in baseball. I thought I might get hit again in baseball. If I get hit again, I think I can have surgery,” he said.메이저사이트

When asked about the factors that led to his three-hit performance in the Futures, Lee said, “I think I kept it the same. Even when I was resting, I kept thinking about baseball. I did image training.” He added, “When I was in the reserve team, I received a lot of help from coach Lee Sung-yeol. When I was in the residency, I received a lot of help from coach Lee Sung-yeol.” He said, “I had to keep hitting because I was resting after hitting a lot.

Lee carried over his hitting from the Futures League to the first team. In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the bases loaded, he took a 145 km/h fastball from Mario Sanchez over the right field fence.

Lee’s return at the end of the first half will be a big boost for KT.