Giants, Lee beat Rays, Kim in final clash of 2025 MLB season

In this Imagn Images photo, Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants hits a double against the Tampa Bay Rays during the clubs' Major League Baseball regular-season game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Sunday. Reuters-Yonhap

The San Francisco Giants have defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 7-1 in the clubs' final meeting of the season at home, with their Korean center fielder Lee Jung-hoo turning an acrobatic, if unusual, play with his knees.

After losing the first two games of this three-game set, the Giants claimed the finale after pounding out 11 hits at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sunday (local time).

This series was the only meeting this year between these two clubs, who play in opposite leagues, and between two Koreans for their respective clubs — Lee for the Giants and shortstop Kim Ha-seong for the Rays.

Lee and Kim are the only two Koreans currently active in Major League Baseball, with Kim Hye-seong of the Los Angeles Dodgers on the injured list.

Lee batted leadoff for the first time since July 27 and went 1-for-4. He had been hitting anywhere from fifth to seventh in the lineup in August before moving back to the top of the order in this game.

That lone hit was a double that opened the game for the Giants in the bottom of the first. With 28 doubles, Lee leads the Giants and is tied for eighth in the National League.

The center fielder struck out swinging in the bottom of the third but then made a unique catch with his knees on the warning track in center in the fourth.

As Lee made a sliding catch attempt on a deep fly by Yandy Diaz, the ball went off the heel of Lee's glove. It then hit Lee's left thigh and rolled down toward his calf, but Lee turned his body around and somehow squeezed the ball with his knees before it touched the ground.

Lee got to his feet with the ball still between his knees and then held it up for the umpires to see that he had indeed made an out.

"The wind was pretty heavy, and the ball was reaching out a lot, so I went for the slide," Lee said via interpreter Justin Han. "I did catch it, but I felt like it was going under my body, starting from the chest. It was a funny catch, for sure."

Right fielder Drew Gilbert, who had the best view of the play in the field, said the catch was "pretty crazy."

"That was very impressive. That's a winning play from a winning player," Gilbert added.

It took several moments for Giants manager Bob Melvin to process what Lee had done.

"I thought he just went down," Melvin said. "I was worried that he may have hurt something like his ankle. I wasn't really sure because he was down for a while. The replay took a while, but our people were talking about it and realized he caught it between his knees. Pretty good. Haven't seen that one before."

Diaz, at the wrong end of the play, said he thought "it was 200 percent a double."

"I had the bad luck that he caught the ball," Diaz added. "I think he's the only player who's ever done that. It was a very weird play."

From the booth, veteran Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper gushed, "I don't care what anybody says. That's the catch of the decade. Not of the year, not of the day, not of the week, not of the homestand — the decade."

Back at the plate in the sixth, Lee flied out to left field, not getting involved in a four-run outburst by the Giants in that frame. Lee hit another flyout to left in the seventh, right after teammates Drew Gilbert and Tyler Fitzgerald had blasted back-to-back solo home runs to push the Giants' lead to 6-0.

Lee's batting average remained at .260. He has hit safely in 14 of 15 games in August.

Kim, batting sixth, went 2-for-4 with two strikeouts. He hit a single to Lee in center in his first at-bat in the top of the second inning. He singled again in the top of the fifth for his third multihit game over the past eight days.

Kim struck out to end the seventh inning and then struck out again in the ninth to end the game. But his batting average went up from .213 to .228.