Phoenix: A day after being held out of the lineup, Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants marked his return with a three-hit effort. Lee went 3-for-5 with an RBI and scored twice, as the Giants squeezed past the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-5 at Chase Field on Wednesday. Lee came up a home run shy of a cycle, after recording a triple, a double, and then an infield single. He flied out to right field in his final at-bat in the ninth inning.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee batted only .143 for June and ended the month on a four-game hitless skid, leading to his benching for the Giants' first game of July. After his fifth three-hit game of the season Wednesday-first since May 6-Lee is batting .246/.315/.406 in 83 games.
Batting fifth, Lee faced starter Merrill Kelly in the top first with two outs and a runner at first, as the Giants held a 1-0 lead. Lee jumped on a first-pitch fastball and tripled off the right-center field wall to extend the lead to 2-0. This marked Lee's seventh triple of the season, tying him for second place in the National League. Lee later added a double in the fourth inning and an infield single in the eighth, eventually scoring on Patrick Bailey's single.
The Giants carried a 5-3 lead into the bottom ninth, but Ketel Marte's two-run homer for the Diamondbacks tied the game, sending it into extra innings. Lee, after making the final out in the ninth, started the 10th inning as the designated runner at second base. He advanced to third on Heliot Ramos' infield single and scored the tiebreaking run on Bailey's sacrifice fly.
Merrill Kelly, who pitched in the KBO for the SK Wyverns from 2015 to 2018, faced Lee, who made his KBO debut for the Nexen Heroes in 2017. Lee had been 7-for-15 with two doubles and five RBIs against Kelly during their time in South Korea.
In another game, Kim Hye-seong of the Los Angeles Dodgers batted 1-for-3 with a steal in his team's 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox at Dodger Stadium. Kim picked up his lone hit in the fifth inning and later stole second base, marking his eighth steal of the season. The Dodgers, trailing 4-2 in the bottom ninth, rallied with a walkoff single from Freddie Freeman after tying the score with a sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts. Kim is batting .368/.415/.517 in 39 games and played second base in this game after spending most of the previous month in center field.