Veteran Tigers slugger appreciates chance to play with superstar teammate

SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Yonhap) -- It is not often that a baseball player hits two home runs in a key postseason game and still gets upstaged by a teammate, but that is exactly what happened to Kia Tigers slugger Na Sung-bum this week.

The Tigers pummeled the LG Twins 13-1 in Game 3 of their best-of-five series in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason Tuesday night at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, with Na contributing two solo home runs that, by the end of the night, became a footnote to the latest heroic feat authored by Tigers superstar Kim Do-yeong.

Na opened the scoring for the Tigers with a solo home run to lead off the top of the second inning. But a few minutes later, Kim blasted a colossal grand slam measured at 145 meters, tying the record for the longest postseason home run in KBO history. At 23 years and 18 days old, Kim also became the youngest player to launch a KBO postseason grand slam.

And the Tigers were already up 8-0 when Na delivered his second solo home run of the game. With the score so lopsided and the Twins showing few signs of life with their bats, Na's second homer almost seemed immaterial.

Kim was voted the series MVP, and Na, 37, said afterward he enjoyed a front-row seat to Kim's memorable performance throughout the series.

"It seems like he is getting better every year," Na said of Kim, who won the regular-season MVP award in 2024 and is considered a strong contender for this year's award. "I have so much to learn from him even though he is younger. I can hardly wait to see just how much better he will get in the coming years and how many more records he will break. I am grateful for the fact that we are playing on the same team and I hope he stays here a long time.

"There have been moments when I thought he was going to hit a wall, and then he would just shake it off and keep on going," Na continued. "It has been incredible to watch."

As captain of his team, Na pointed out it has not been just Kim carrying the team, although it may have seemed so from the outside.

"Some guys have only played occasionally but they have produced whenever they got their chances," Na said, singling out fourth outfielder Park Jung-woo and backup catcher Han Jun-su. In Tuesday's win, Park had two hits and two RBIs from the leadoff spot, and Han hit a solo homer as part of his two-RBI night.

"I am getting the feeling that we can win games no matter who gets into the lineup," Na added.