In Australia on Thursday, Ji-Hwan Bae went 1-for-3 with a walk and a two-run home run. It was his second home run of the winter. Bae has not hit a regular season home run with the Pirates in 532 plate appearances over two seasons.
Below is video of the homer from Thursday, which isn’t as impressive as “straight away center field” sounds because it’s only 358 feet there. Sure it cleared a high wall and landed on the other side of the vehicle behind the fence, but that’s more like a “home run to the gap” distance at most places. That being said, he didn’t show home run to the gap power with the Pirates. Bae is likely to add power as he continues to fill out his 6’1″ frame, but his swing is more geared towards line drives.
Ji-Hwan Bae goes deep to give @Geelong_Korea a pulse in Brisbane!
Watch the finish on Kayo Sports in Australia #ABL pic.twitter.com/eZ6DezX8Cy
— Australian Baseball League (@ABL) November 28, 2019
In Friday’s game, Bae came off the bench in the tenth inning and hit a two-run single with the bases loaded to give his club a 6-4 lead at the time. They ended up losing 8-7. Bae is hitting .333/.500/.867 in his first five games this winter.
We will have more Friday results from Australia in tomorrow’s winter article. The game with Robbie Glendinning and Jerrick Suiter playing was still going on at the time I published this article.
In Colombia, Luis Escobar pitched his first game since being designated for assignment back on November 20th. Escobar cleared waivers on Wednesday. He picked up the save in his team’s 2-0 win, retiring the side in order in the ninth, while recording one strikeout. He had previously made two starts in Colombia this winter, throwing shutout ball for a total of five innings before giving up four runs in the fourth inning of his second game. His first start was limited to two innings due to a power outage delay at the stadium.
Francisco Acuna went 0-for-3 with a walk on Wednesday night. He had been at second base in every game where I saw the lineup prior to Wednesday, but he started at shortstop in this game. He’s hitting .314/.422/.343 through 12 games, with more walks (4) than strikeouts (3).
Edgar Barrios went 2-for-4, giving him a .258/.303/.258 slash line through 13 games.
