Patience is gradually reaching its limit. Doosan foreign hitter Jose Rojas, struggling with a batting average in the 10% range after the opening, provided an excuse for the team’s first four consecutive losses of the season, forgetting the basics even in defense.
Rojas started in right field 6 times in the second game of the season against SSG in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 29th and was silent with 3 strikeouts in 5 at-bats. In defense, he made the mistake of missing an ordinary fly ball in the first inning, and was not helpful to the team in both offense and defense.
Lohas had a chance to run first and second base safely in the second inning, trailing 0-2, but met SSG starter Oh Won-seok and withdrew with a looking strikeout. In the 4th inning, when the score was 1-3, he took the lead and ended up with a fly ball to the second baseman, and in the 6th inning, where he was trailing 1-8, he took the lead again and hit a foul fly against third baseman Choi Min-jun, the pitcher who had changed.
Rojas’ silence continued. In the 7th inning, which he pursued 3-8, he also had a chance to run 1st and 2nd base with 2 out, but the inning was forced to end with a looking strikeout. After that, in the last 9th inning, which was trailing 4-10, with no runners and two outs, he struck out looking again and became the victim of the last out count.
After going hitless in the last three games, Rojas’ season batting average dropped from 1.69 to 1.57 (11 hits in 70 at-bats). Limiting the period to the last six games, he drops the numbers even further to 5-for-6 (1-for-18).
It wasn’t just an attack. The defense was also not like a player who played 83 major league games. In the first inning when the score was 0-0, first baseman Choi Joo-hwan caught an ordinary fly ball and then missed it, making an absurd catch mistake, providing the excuse for Guillermo Heredia’s two-run double in the final.
Where did it go wrong? Lohas signed a contract with Doosan in October last year for a total of 1 million dollars (about 1.2 billion won). A right-handed and left-handed hitter with a height of 183cm-90kg, he debuted in the big leagues with the Los Angeles Angels in 2021 and recorded a batting average of 1.88, 6 homers, 16 RBIs, and an OPS of . His career minor league performance was 535 games with a batting average of 2.85 with 92 home runs and 365 RBIs for an OPS of .
The Doosan club said of Lohas, “Based on a stable hitting mechanism, he is good at producing mid- to long-distance batting balls. In addition, it is a type of spray hitter with a swing rate of breaking balls lower than average and a wide distribution of batted balls.” In fact, Lohas showed an impressive appearance every day in attack and defense training with quick adaptation at the Australian spring camp, and in the demonstration game, he played an active role in 11 games with a batting average of 40% (12 hits in 30 at-bats), 1 home run and 5 RBIs, raising expectations. 메이저사이트
Even during the opening game, Doosan was worried about foreign hitters. It is because Lohas made a strong first impression with 2 hits and 5 RBIs in 6 at-bats, including an exhilarating ending home run, in his debut game against Lotte on the 1st. But the RBI show was the first and last. After his batting average broke in the 20% range due to no hits against Jamsil NC on the 4th, his batting average for the season remained in the 10% range until the match against Incheon SSG on the 29th for nearly a month.
First of all, the command tower plans to give LOHAS a little more time to adapt. Hitting coach Koji Goto is also concentrating all his energy on reviving Lohas. Manager Lee Seung-yeop said, “The space for foreign hitters is very large in Korea. In any case, Coach Goto will save Lojas.” He thinks it’s a transition period because he hasn’t even played 30 games yet. He believes it will get better.”