Choi Ji-man goes deep as Rays beat Yankees 4-2

Baseball

Published: 30 May. 2022, 15:05

Choi Ji-man goes deep as Rays beat Yankees 4-2

Choi Ji-man of the Tampa Bay Rays, right, celebrates with teammate Manuel Margot after hitting a home run against the New York Yankees during the second inning of a game in St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Choi Ji-man picked up his fourth home run of the 2022 MLB season on Sunday as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees 4-2.

Choi went deep at the bottom of the second inning, tying the score at 1-1 after Gleyber Torres put the Yankees ahead with his own solo homer at the top of the inning. The Korean slugger turned around a 95.7 mile-per-hour fastball from Yankees starter Luis Severino, sending it over the left field wall.

The Rays pulled ahead with another solo home run at the bottom of the fifth, this one from Tyler Walls, and then added two more at the bottom of the seventh. Choi, who was one of two walks that kicked off that inning, came around to score the fourth run.

The Yankees added one more at top of the eighth, a solo homer from Aaron Judge, but were unable to overcome the deficit. The 4-2 finish leaves the top two clubs in the American League East to split the series at two games each.

Choi Ji-man of the Tampa Bay Rays, right, celebrates with teammate Brett Phillips after hitting a home run against the New York Yankees during the second inning of a game in St. Petersburg, Florida on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Sunday's game marked the fourth time Choi has gone deep this season and the second time in the week following a long fly against the Miami Marlins on May 24. Choi has a .260 batting average on the season so far with 25 hits, 13 runs, 20 RBIs and the four homers. His slugging percentage is .458.

Choi has seen his batting average take a bit of a hit in recent games following his return from injury at the start of the month.

After a strong start to the season in April with a .357 batting average, two home runs and 10 RBIs, Choi landed on the 10-day injured list (IL) on May 1 due to "loose bodies in his right elbow."

He was reactivated on May 8 — the 10 days were retroactive and counted from April 28 — but appeared to struggle at the plate. In his first four games back from injury, Choi failed to pick up a single hit in 15 at-bats, striking out eight times.

That 0-for-15 dry spell started to cause some concerns, especially because Choi had started the previous month with a 9-for-16 run, but the slugger wasn't too worried.

"It's nothing new to me, and I'm not in my best condition,'' Choi said on May 13. "But I'm trying to do my best to get back to where I was before. My condition is always up and down, so my focus right now is to get back to my best condition.''

Choi's lack of concern appears to have been the correct approach. Immediately following that interview his numbers started to pick up, with the Korean slugger recording his first hit in nearly three weeks on May 15. That improvement continued, with Choi managing multi-hit games on both May 22 and May 24, before dropping off again for a run of three quiet games before Sunday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]