Twins' Park Byung-ho hits 12th home run
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Minnesota Twins’ Park Byung-ho of Korea rounds third base on a two-run home run off New York Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda in the fourth inning of a baseball game in Minneapolis, Saturday. / AP-Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Minnesota Twins’ Korean hitter Park Byung-ho belted his 12th home run of the season against the New York Yankees, Saturday (local time).
At Target Field in Minneapolis, Park started the game as a designated hitter, batting sixth.
Park crushed a two-run home run, in the fourth, for his 12th dinger of the season after hitting the Yankees starter Michael Pineda’s 96 mph first-pitch fastball. Park’s homer was the first home run in 10 days since he hit his 11th against the Miami Marlins on June 9.
Park’s home run gave his team a 3-0 lead, but the Twins took a 6-7 defeat after their bullpen allowed seven runs over the final three innings. With the loss, the Twins are last in the league at 20 wins and 48 losses, extending their losing streak to five.
Besides the two-run shot, Park added one more RBI after hitting a sacrifice fly in the sixth. Overall, he went 1-for-3 to increase his batting average from .204 to .206.
In Busch Stadium, Choo Shin-soo of the Texas Rangers went 2-for-4 against the St. Louis Cardinals, including a hit against the Cardinals’ Korean reliever Oh Seung-hwan.
Batting first, Choo’s first hit came in the first inning as he sent the Cardinals’ starter Carlos Martinez’s 98 mph fourth-pitch fastball to right field and added another hit against Oh in the early eighth, raising his batting average to .235.
Oh took the mound in the eighth with the Cardinals ahead 3-0. Though he struck out back-to-back Rangers, he surrendered a single to Choo and a double to Ian Desmond. During Nomar Mazara’s at bat, Oh threw a wild pitch to allow the Rangers to score their first run of the game. The Rangers added one more run on a fielding error committed by first baseman Matt Adams.
After adding two more runs in the ninth, the Rangers defeated the Cardinals 4-3, extending their winning streak to five. With the win the Rangers are in first place in the American League’s Western Division with 44 wins and 25 losses. It is their best start in club history after 69 games.
In the National League, Kang Jung-ho of the Pittsburgh Pirates went 1-for-3 with a walk in an away game against the Chicago Cubs. The Pirates lost 4-3.
Lee Dae-ho of the Seattle Mariners and Kim Hyun-soo of the Baltimore Orioles didn’t play that day.