Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bae Ji-hwan gets ready for a regulation at-bat.
Bae went 1-for-4 with a walk and a run scored in the Pirates’ 7-2 win over the New York Mets at PNC Park on April 12. Bae drove in the game-winning run to give Pittsburgh a 2-1 victory.
With the two-game sweep of the three-game series against the Mets, Pittsburgh improved to 34-30 and took over first place in the NL Central. The Milwaukee Brewers, who were in first place the day before, lost 6-8 to the Oakland Athletics. The two teams are separated by a half-game, making every game a slugfest.
With his four extra at-bats, Bae is now 193 for the season, five shy of the team’s 198 plate appearances. Plate appearances are calculated by multiplying a team’s games played by 3.1, rounded to the first decimal place.
A starter usually gets four at-bats per game, so if Bae starts the next five games in a row, he’ll get his dream plate appearances and climb the leaderboards. Entering the day, Bae is batting .270 (47-for-174) with two home runs, 17 RBI, 32 runs scored, and a .682 OPS, which ranks second on the team behind Brian Reynolds (.280) and 28th in the NL. His stolen bases are first on the team and tied for second in the NL, and his runs scored are third on the team.
Regulation at-bats are no less meaningful, as they speak to his status on the team. Bae has started 47 games this season, 27 at second base, 17 in center field, and three at shortstop. He’s more of a utility player, but it’s safe to say he’s treated like a starter.
So far, only Shin-Soo Choo and Ha-Sung Kim have played more regular season at-bats than any other Korean major leaguer. Choo has done it nine times, and Kim did it once last year.
Bae Ji-hwan used his quick feet to get home on this day.
Pittsburgh scored its final run in the fourth inning, trailing 1-0. After the Mets opened the scoring with a Jeff McNeil solo homer in the top of the fourth, Pittsburgh evened the score with a leadoff single by Zack Swinski. One out later, Bae Ji-hwan came to the plate and lined a double to right to put runners in scoring position.
On a 1B2S pitch, Bae crushed a four-seam, 87.9-mph changeup from Mets starter Carlos Carrasco for a clean double to right-center field and advanced to third on a wild pitch by Carrasco in the next at-bat by Tukpita Makano. He came home with time to spare on Makano’s single to right.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh slugger Andrew McCutchen reached 2,000 career hits. McCutchen led off the bottom of the first inning with a single to left field on an 85.8-mph slider from Carrasco, becoming the 291st player in major league history and the fifth active player to reach 2,000 career hits.먹튀검증
As McCutchen reached first base, the PNC Park crowd gave him a standing ovation, and not only Pittsburgh players but Mets players rose to their feet to applaud and congratulate him. He was captured on camera celebrating with his wife, Maria, and their three children, who watched from the stands.
McCutchen made his major league debut with Pittsburgh in 2009 and was a franchise player, winning MVP honors in 2013, before leaving the team in 2018 and bouncing around the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers before finally returning to Pittsburgh as a free agent last winter on a one-year deal.