Doosan's Park Jun-soon youngest to reach 10 game-winning hits

Doosan Bears infielder Park Jun-soon swung at the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the seventh inning on Tuesday, putting it over the left field wall and into the top row of the stands.

The ball traveled 130 meters (427 feet) and came off the bat at 175 kilometers (109 miles) per hour — a well-struck shot even by the standards of Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which has the biggest outfield in the KBO.

The three-run home run beat the Hanwha Eagles 6-3.

It was Park's 10th game-winning hit of the season, a statistic the KBO keeps for a hit that drives in the winning run for a team. Park, aged 20 years and 29 days, is the youngest player to reach double digit game-winning hits in a single season since the league began tracking the record electronically in 2002.

Doosan had led 3-0 into the seventh before Hanwha took the game apart in four batters at the game in Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa District, southern Seoul. Kang Baek-ho led off with a solo home run off the Doosan bullpen, a walk followed and a two-run homer tied it 3-3.

Kang also owned the record Park broke. He reached 10 game-winning hits in 2019 with the KT Wiz at 20 years and 1 month, and on Tuesday he watched from the opposite dugout as the mark went.

Park moved ahead of a select group of hitters who have shaped the last two decades of Korean baseball: Kim Do-yeong, who got to 10 at 20 years, 9 months and 15 days; Kim Tae-kyun at 21 years, 2 months and 19 days; Moon Hyun-bin at 21 years, 3 months and 5 days; Kim Hyun-soo at 21 years, 7 months and 24 days; Kim Ha-seong at 21 years, 10 months and 5 days; and Lee Jung-hoo at 21 years, 11 months and 11 days. Kim Ha-seong and Lee Jung-hoo are now both playing in MLB.

Tuesday's game was the league's first back from a five-day shutdown. The KBO called off every game from Aug. 5 through Aug. 9 as temperatures neared 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), and the Jamsil crowd had spent the break waiting for baseball to return.

Park has been deciding games since April. He beat Hanwha at Jamsil on April 5, the Kiwoom Heroes at Jamsil on April 8, the SSG Landers in Incheon on April 14 and the Kia Tigers at Jamsil on April 19. On April 26, he beat the LG Twins, who share Jamsil with Doosan, with a walk-off hit at 19 years, 9 months and 13 days, the youngest walk-off in club history. His last three game-winning hits have all been home runs: a 10th-inning shot at SSG on July 28, another against LG on July 31 and Tuesday's dinger.

“I'm the type who gets a little excited when a scoring chance comes up,” Park said. “So I try to calm myself down before I step into the batter's box. In important situations I definitely concentrate more, and I feel like I see the ball better.”

Doosan took Park sixth overall in the 2025 draft, and he signed under the expectations that came with the pick. The club had not used a first-round pick on an infielder in 16 years, since Heo Kyoung-min in 2009. Heo now plays for KT.

Two seasons in, Park has become Doosan's main run producer. A thigh injury cost him more than a month from mid-May, and he still leads the Bears with 53 RBIs, one clear of veteran catcher Yang Eui-ji. He is batting .332 with 16 home runs in 69 games.

Tuesday's home run was not the first time Park has gone after a first pitch, and Doosan manager Kim Won-hyong reads nerve in it.

“Just as I always tell the pitchers to get a first-pitch strike, Park Jun-soon is the type of hitter who tries to decide the at-bat within the first three pitches,” the Doosan manager said. “I think young players are right to play the way he does, with the attitude that they have nothing to lose.”

The win was Doosan's fourth in a row and left the Bears close against the third-place LG, as they chase a return to the postseason they missed last year. Park is also due in Japan next month. He was named in June to Korea's 24-man squad for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, where the baseball tournament runs from Sept. 21 to 27. Korea is after a fifth straight gold medal. Gold medalists are exempted from Korea's mandatory military service.

For now, Park isn't looking too far ahead, whether to the Asian Games or his personal numbers.

“If I try too hard to hit home runs, it can throw off my swing,” Park said. “At the start of the season, my goal was just to stay on the first-team roster. Now I'm satisfied and grateful that I can play every game.”

BY BAE YOUNG-EUN [[email protected]]