Fish fry
Giants 6, Marlins 3
🎧 Podcast: Kerry and I break down Jung Hoo Lee’s breakout, Casey Schmitt’s spills, and the best and worst of the last week. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere else.
About a year ago I went to Jung Hoo Lee’s best game—a two-homer afternoon in New York—which ended in me referring to Aaron Judge as the Yankees’ Jung Hoo Lee.
That zinger aged well for about a week before Lee’s numbers fell off a cliff. He hit under .200 across May and June.
So it’s with healthy skepticism I look back at his last two weeks—he’s batting .439 with a 1.133 OPS—and wonder how real it is. Lee’s next dribbler to second base can’t be far, right?
For now, it’s hypnotizing to watch him at the plate. He has complete control of the bat. He’s pulling inside pitches, shooting outside ones the other way, and driving balls over the middle of the plate. Max Meyer tried to groove his first pitch of the game and Lee crushed it into Triple’s Alley.
He went 4 for 5 Sunday afternoon, his sixth multi-hit game in the last 10 days. (Judge has only had four such games all season.)
Still, after 215 career games, I don’t think we don’t have a read on who Lee is as a hitter. Consistently inconsistent? The Sultan of Spring? The 4-3 King?
I’ll let you know in a year.
Up next: The Giants are off Monday before beginning an East Coast road trip through Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. It’ll be Tyler Mahle against Jesús Luzardo at 3:40 p.m on Tuesday. The Phils have lost 11 of 12 and Mahle’s ERA is over five, so it’ll be a get well game for somebody.