Foreign hitter Jose Pirella (34, Samsung Lions) has an extraordinary sense of hitting.
Pirella started as the left fielder with the third batter in the away game against the LG Twins held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 9th, and had no hits in five at-bats. With this, the LG away weekend ended with no hits in 12 at-bats. Pipella’s season batting average is 0.087 (2 hits in 23 at-bats), which is less than 10%. The OPS, which is the sum of on-base percentage (0.160) and slugging percentage (0.217), was also 0.377, and the red flag was turned on.
On this day, Pirella was out with a foul fly by the catcher and a fly by the second baseman in the first and second innings. At the beginning of the second inning, with a 2-0 lead, it was a chance to score with 2 out, 1st and 3rd base, but the ball did not get out of the infield. Pirella, who withdrew with a shortstop grounder in the top of the 5th inning, lowered her head again in the 7th inning for a decisive chance. He retired with a looking strikeout in a 2-2 match with one out and bases loaded. He played a full count against right-handed bullpen Kim Jin-seong, but only watched the forkball on the 6th pitch. In the top of the 10th inning, he came out as the lead batter and failed to reach base again due to a foul fly by the first baseman. At the end of the 10th inning, Samsung got a walk-off hit from Moon Bo-kyung and lost 2-3. 안전놀이터
4th Kang Min-ho played an active role with 2 hits and 1 RBI in 4 at-bats, but the weight of the center batting line dropped as No. 3 Pirella and No. 5 Oh Jae-il (no hits in 4 at-bats) were silent. If Pirella does not rebound, the difficult game will inevitably be repeated. There are not enough internal resources to replace the central hitter, including Pirella.
Pirella is not 100% fit right now. This is because he collided with a fence while defending against the Hanwha Eagles in Daegu on the 4th. He returned to LG on the 7th after taking a break after being diagnosed with a rib bruise, but his batting balance was broken. Prior to the game on the 9th, Samsung coach Park Jin-man expressed regret about Pirella, saying, “I say it’s okay, but it hurts to some extent, but I think I’m enduring it.” It is difficult for Samsung, whose team batting average (0.223 as of the 9th) is last in the league, to give Pirella a long break. The best case scenario is that he recovers his sense of hitting while playing the game. However, there is no sign of a rebound.
Pirella is ‘Samsung’s fortune’. For the third year this year, he has kept the center line of the Lion Corps. Last year, he participated in 141 games and played an active role with a batting average of 0.342 (192 hits in 561 bats), 28 homers and 109 RBIs. The OPS reaches a whopping 0.976. In particular, the batting average of 0.351 in April 2021 and the batting average of 0.390 in April of last year showed a terrifying early impact every year. This is why this year’s batting record is particularly awkward. For Samsung, which fell to 9th place (2 wins, 5 losses) at the beginning of the season, the fire fell properly.