Giants' Lee Jung-hoo enjoys 3-hit game in return to lineup
Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants hits a triple against the Arizona Diamondbacks during a Major League Baseball regular-season game at Chase Field in Phoenix, Ariz., U.S., Wednesday. Yonhap
A day after being held out of the lineup, Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants marked his return with a three-hit effort.
Lee went 3-for-5 with an RBI and scored twice, as the Giants squeezed past the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5 at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wednesday (local time). Lee came up a home run shy of a cycle, after recording a triple, a double and then an infield single. He flied out to right field in his final at-bat in the ninth inning.
Lee batted only .143 for June and ended the month on a four-game hitless skid, leading to his benching for the Giants' first game of July on Tuesday. After his fifth three-hit game of the season Wednesday — first since May 6 — Lee is batting .246/.315/.406 in 83 games.
Batting fifth, Lee came up in the top first against starter Merrill Kelly -- Lee's old foe in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) — with two outs and a runner at first, and the Giants up 1-0. Lee then jumped on a first-pitch fastball and tripled off the right-center field wall to put the Giants up 2-0.
It was Lee's seventh triple of the season, putting him in a tie for second place in the National League.
Lee touched Kelly for a double in the top fourth, though he was stranded.
After flying out in the sixth inning, Lee got an infield single to first in the eighth inning. He moved to second on a walk before scoring on Patrick Bailey's single to make it a 4-2 game for the Giants.
The Giants took a 5-3 lead into the bottom ninth, but Ketel Marte's two-run shot for the Diamondbacks tied the game and sent the game into extra innings.
Lee, after making the final out in the ninth, was the designated runner at second base to start the 10th inning. He advanced to third on Heliot Ramos' infield single and scored the tiebreaking run on Bailey's sacrifice fly.
Kelly pitched in the KBO for the SK Wyverns (currently SSG Landers) from 2015 to 2018, while Lee made his KBO debut for the Nexen (now Kiwoom) Heroes in 2017. Lee was 7-for-15 with two doubles and five RBIs against Kelly during their time in Korea.
Also in the majors Wednesday, Kim Hye-seong of the Los Angeles Dodgers batted 1-for-3 with a steal in his team's 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Kim picked up his lone hit, a single, in the bottom fifth, and later swiped second base bag for his eighth steal of the season.
The Dodgers went into the bottom ninth trailing 4-2, and after their first two batters of the inning reached with a single and a walk, Kim drew a four-pitch walk from Grant Taylor to load the bases.
Kim was forced out at second on a grounder hit by Shohei Ohtani, who beat the throw to first to avoid the double play as a run scored. A sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts tied the score at 4-4. After a steal by Ohtani and a walk to Will Smith, Freddie Freeman delivered the walkoff single for the home team.
Kim is batting .368/.415/.517 in 39 games. He got the start at second base in this game after playing shortstop Tuesday and spending the majority of time in center field last month.