KIA's 'Wisdom' Wizdom, who avenged Ryu Hyun-jin with a 'big shot' at once, deserved to be brought in instead of 'Tes-hyung.'
KIA's 'Wisdom' Wizdom, who avenged Ryu Hyun-jin with a 'big shot' at once, deserved to be brought in instead of 'Tes-hyung.'
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One batting power is "Jintong." Indeed, Kia has long-range hitting power that can be acquired by giving up Socrates Brito, a proven resource in the KBO league over the past three years. Kia seems to be able to agree with the decision from the beginning of the season by sending out "Tes-hyung" and recruiting Patrick Wisdom as its new foreign hitter. With Wisdom's strong performance, Kia has emerged from the brink of losing five consecutive games, signaling a reversal of mood.스포츠토토
Wisdom started as the second batter and first baseman in an away game against Hanwha in the 2025 KBO League held at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 30th, and played an active role with two hits, two RBIs and one run from four times at bat, including a tiebreaking solo shot.
Wizdom's shot changed the course of the game. Hanwha Eagles starting pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin is the "Korea Monster" and Kia has Adam Oler as its second foreign player. Amid Ryu Hyun-jin's dominance, Kia was trailing 1-2 through the fifth inning. Among the previous four consecutive losses, Kia lost the game as the closing team including Jung Hae-young, Jo Sang-woo, Kwak Do-gyu, and Jeon Sang-hyun, and the closing team including the closing team, and the closing team, and the finishing team, Kwak Do-gyu, and Jeon Sang-hyun, had a whiff of sweepstakes.
Wisdom has already faced Ryu Hyun-jin in the U.S. Major League Baseball. Two years ago in the 2023 season, Wisdom, a former member of the Chicago Cubs, faced off as pitcher and batter with Ryu, a former member of the Toronto Blue Jays. After rehabilitating from an elbow injury, Ryu returned to the Major League on August 1 that year through a game against the Baltimore Orioles, and took the mound against the Cubs for the third time since his return. At the time, Ryu pitched well by allowing two hits, three strikeouts, and two runs (zero earned) in five innings, becoming the winning pitcher in the Major League in 444 days. He thus garnered two of the three strikeouts he had secured at the time by Wisdom.
On this day, Wisdom struck out in the first at-bat in the first inning and the second at-bat in the third inning, and his previous showdown with Ryu Hyun-jin was completely overwhelmed with no hits in four at-bats.
Taking the batter's box for the third time as the first batter in the sixth inning, Wizdom avenged his loss with a single shot. At 1B-0S, Ryu pulled a 134-km cut fastball on his second pitch, which flew 125 meters and crossed the left fence. It was a valuable homerun that tied the game 2-2 in no time.
KIA, which instantly set the tone of the game in the crisis of the sweep loss, ran 5-2 by tapping the Hanwha mound from the seventh inning when Ryu Hyun-jin went down from the mound and the bullpen was in operation. Wisdom hit a timely hit to the left in the seventh inning with two outs and a third base, followed by an equalizer.
KIA, which won the combined championship last year that devoured the regular league and the Korean Series at the same time, is considered the strongest candidate for the Korean Series this season as well. Although it started this season with the evaluation of "absolute first-round" in terms of objective power, key fielders, including last season's MVP Kim Do-young and infield defense's core Park Chan-ho, left the field due to injuries from the beginning, and fell to a joint last place due to a series of firestorms by the bullpen.
Wizdom is a batter that KIA brought Socrates back after giving up. Socrates had a career batting average of 0.302 with 63 home runs and 270 RBIs with an OPS of 0.843 over the past three years from 2022 to last year. While he was an excellent foreign hitter with an average of 20 home runs per year with a precision of 30%, Kia recruited Wizdom because it wanted a card that could show a more destructive slugging capability.
Wisdom had strong and weak points in the Major League as well. He clearly had the ability to hit with a single shot, but he was the type of "threatening" who struck out too many times compared to walks. He exceeded 20 home runs for the third consecutive year with 28 home runs in 2021, 25 home runs in 2022, and 23 home runs in 2023, but he was a batter who struck out as many as 540 while picking up 132 walks in the major leagues.
Nevertheless, Kia was able to bring Wizdom because Matt Davidson, who became the home run king of the KBO League by hitting 46 home runs last season, showed similar careers in the major leagues. Davidson also hit 26 home runs in 2017 and 20 home runs in 2018 in the big league, and is a type of blackmail, as evidenced by his 88 walks and 381 strikeouts in the big league. Nevertheless, he made his KBO League debut last season with a batting average of 0.307 and hit 46 home runs.
KIA seems to have made the right decision. Since hitting a homerun in the game against the Gwangju Kiwoom on Saturday, the third game since the opening, Wizdom has launched homeruns in all three consecutive games against the Hanwha Eagles. The pitchers who stole the homeruns were also the "one, two, three punch" that the Hanwha Eagles boast of, including Cody Ponce, Ryan Weiss and Ryu Hyun-jin. As such, Wizdom's slugging capability is on fire as expected. He shares the lead in homers along with Moon Bo-kyung of the LG Twins with four homers in eight games. Moreover, he is not bad at pioneering in the KBO league. He garnered nine walks and struck out only six in eight games.
Will Wisdom be able to continue its current momentum and become the home run king? If so, Kia's regular league ranking is highly likely to be the same as last season.