Hyun-soo Kim finally got another start last night, his first since Thursday, and just his second since April 16. He went 1-for-3 with a walk (of course), and helped spark the O’s comeback by becoming the first player this year to homer off Tampa’s Chris Archer.
The homer came with two down in the bottom of the sixth, just when it looked like Archer was about to toss up another goose egg en route to handing the Birds their second straight loss. As happens every time a Korean player homers (or does anything, really), the Korean language broadcast guys lost their minds. Check it out here:
Korean call (MBC Sports+) of Hyun-Soo Kim's 1st HR of the year. #Orioles pic.twitter.com/riESRqSP1l
— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) April 25, 2017
I don’t speak a lick of Korean, but I’m going to attempt to translate anyway…
“Kim gets a hold of one to right center…way back…way back there…you can put it on the boaaaaaarrrrrd, YES! And that, Buck, is why you play this guy!”
These calls are just one of the many things that Showalter robs the world of by not playing Kim more often.
Kim also picked up his first hit of the season off a left-handed pitcher on Sunday against Boston:
https://twitter.com/NaturallyKatz/status/856283134064766976
Ok, sure, so it was nothing but an infield dribbler with eyes. But need I remind you that that’s how Kim got like his first five or six hits overall in his rookie season? That’s how he starts!
With some more opportunities, he’ll be working lefties for prolonged at-bats and walks, and knocking them around just like he does righties. He just needs the chance to do so.
Unfortunately, things aren’t about to get any easier for Buck as far as the roster crunch goes. Joey Rickard played a rehab game in Delmarva last night, and reports are that he’ll need just one more before he can be activated from the DL. Buck seems to like what Craig Gentry brings to the table, and Seth Smith just keeps hitting at the top of the order as well.
So where does Kim get in?
One option would be to sit the struggling Mark Trumbo for a day or two. Trumbo hasn’t homered since his Opening Day walk-off, and is at just .214/.257/.300 for the season. Kim could DH, while Smith and/or Gentry/Rickard man the outfield corners.
We’ll see what Showalter decides to do. The bet here is that he keeps penciling Trumbo into the lineup every day, because “track record.” But the hope is that Kim starts to see a whole lot more playing time.
