Why did Yang Seok-hwan (33), the 7.8 billion captain of the Doosan Bears in the professional baseball league, roar with all his might after hitting a grand slam. 밤알바

Yang Seok-hwan started as the sixth first baseman in Game 7 of the season against the Lotte Giants of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 3rd and led his team to a 13-8 victory with four hits (one home run) and five RBIs and two runs in five at-bats. 

He hit a long ball from his first at bat. When his team was losing 0-6 with runners on the left side, he hit a double that hit the left fence of Lotte starter Park Se-woong to open a four-hit show. He then scored when Kang Seung-ho had a hit to the left. 

At the bottom of the fourth inning when the team was losing 3-6, he appeared as the leadoff hitter and hit a double to the deep left-center field. Center fielder Hwang Sung-bin was expected to catch the double, but he made a mistake in judgment on the hit, making it a lucky double. 

It was his third at-bat. He came out with the bases loaded with one outs in the bottom of the fifth inning when his team was losing 3-6, and hit a come-from-behind grand slam off Lotte's new pitcher Kim Sang-soo. With the ball count 2B-2S, he properly hit Kim Sang-soo's high fastball (147 kilometers) to lead the team to a 115-meter home run to the left. It was his 19th home run of this season in four games since the game against the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon on June 27. It was his 21st home run of this season, his 1,067th career grand slam, and his 7th individual grand slam. 

Yang did not stop. With the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning when the score was 7-7, he targeted Koo's first pitch and hit a timely RBI single to right to secure the finishing hit on the day. 

Yang achieved his second career four hits in a game in 1,040 days since the game against Sajik Lotte on Aug. 28, 2021, the first year of his transfer from Doosan. He had five hits in the game on Aug. 28, 2021. 

After the game, Yang Seok-hwan said, "It was almost a difficult game because the score was widened in the beginning, but I was able to win because all of the team did well."

Regarding the roaring ceremony performed after hitting the grand slam, he explained, "I was happy that it was a reversal, but I thought it brought the atmosphere, so the reaction came out big." 

Yang, who entered the first year of his four-plus-two-year 7.8 billion-won contract as a free agent, was suffering from a slump in his batting average of 243 before the game. He hit 18 homers with 58 RBIs and cruised to the goal of 30 homers to 100 RBIs, but his batting average was hardly in the low 20s. Yang also saw his batting average fall to 230 in May amid a slump in his monthly batting average of 190. 

Yang posted a batting average of 271 and six homers during the month of June, providing an opportunity for his team to rebound. In the first game in July, he performed four hits including a grand slam and a finishing hit, shaking off his troubles. 

What has changed? "It is true that I had a bad start to the season. I acknowledged my shortcomings and people around me are helping me a lot, so I think the results are getting better little by little," Yang said. "Coach Lee Young-soo helped me a lot. I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude." 

Yang Seok-hwan's goal is to continue his four hits in the second half of the day. As the first half was a series of sluggishness, he seemed to want to make up for it in the second half.

Yang Seok-hwan said, "As good results came out at the end of the first half, I will do my best to continue this trend and show better performance in the second half."