How can things go so wrong? Lotte's Han Dong-hei, the '3G consecutive home run' hitter, is injured again. "Side muscle strain... 3-week rehabilitation advised"

*This content was translated by AI.

It seems things just cannot go this badly. Lotte Giants right-handed power hitter Han Dong-hei (27) has once again been sidelined due to injury.

A Lotte club official explained ahead of the home game against Samsung Lions scheduled for the 22nd at Busan Sajik Baseball Stadium: "Han Dong-hei received a medical examination at Giant Hospital today (22nd), which revealed a mild strain of the right internal oblique muscle (side muscle). He will require approximately 2 to 3 weeks of rehabilitation."

This is already his third injury this year. It began with a left internal oblique muscle strain during the March exhibition games. As a result, he was not included in the opening day roster and only made his first-division debut in April. His performance through April was not good. He hit .241 (21 hits in 87 at-bats) with no home runs in 23 games.

In May, he led Lotte's upward momentum with a .318 batting average (7 hits in 22 at-bats) including three home runs in three games. In particular, after hitting back-to-back home runs against the Jamsil Doosan Bears on the 16th and 17th, he raised expectations further by hitting a large arc against the Daejeon Hanwha Eagles on the 19th.

However, news of another injury just three days later left Lotte, which had barely returned to a .500 winning percentage, with a sigh.

It is also a regrettable situation for Han Dong-hei personally. Last year, while serving in the Army Baseball Team (ROK Army), Han dominated the Futures League with a .400 batting average (154 hits in 385 at-bats), 27 home runs, 115 RBIs, 107 runs scored, a .480 on-base percentage, a .675 slugging percentage, and an OPS of 1.155 in 100 games. Despite the significant performance gap between the first division and the Futures League, he also showed remarkable growth in detailed metrics with 63 walks and hit-by-pitches (56 walks, 7 hit-by-pitches) and 44 strikeouts, drawing even higher expectations.

He drew even more sympathy as a player who was not satisfied with his minor league performance and was working hard to adapt to the first division. This winter, Han traveled to Tsukuba University in Japan, which gained fame for analyzing Shohei Ohtani's (Los Angeles Dodgers) hitting mechanics, to personally adjust his swing. There, he identified weaknesses in flexibility and hip hinge, and worked on balancing his swing through muscle strengthening.

However, just as his performance began to flourish, the trial of injury kept finding him, pushing the performance of this promising right-handed power hitter with full potential to be expected again in the future.

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*This content was translated by AI.