The Dodgers’ biggest player waited for their smallest one in the visiting dugout at loanDepot Park on Monday night.
Then, the two shared a celebratory embrace.
Like many Asian-born players in recent years, Hyeseong Kim has long looked up to Shohei Ohtani. The South Korean infielder followed the Japanese superstar’s career while beginning his own baseball journey in the Korean Baseball Organization. When Kim signed with the Dodgers after being posted for major league clubs during the offseason, the chance to play alongside Ohtani and the club’s other collection of superstar players was one of the most enticing appeals.
In the Dodgers’ 7-4 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday, Kim finally shared a starting lineup with Ohtani for the first time, getting his first big-league start after being called up this weekend.
Read more: ‘Couldn’t deliver.’ How Dodgers’ lacking lineup depth was exposed in loss to Braves
And during the top of the fifth inning, the two co-starred in a sequence that put the game out of reach — Kim collecting his first MLB hit on a leadoff single, before Ohtani hit a home run that made the score 5-0.
After rounding the bases following his ninth blast of the season, Ohtani returned to the dugout and was greeted by a line of high-fives from teammates. Trailing a few steps behind him, Kim did the same.
When the two finally met — Ohtani’s hulking 6-foot-3 build towering over Kim’s wiry 5-foot-10 frame — Ohtani put both his hands on his new teammate’s helmet, then cracked a wide smile while playfully jumping up and down.
A moment to remember; on a day that, for the 26-year-old Kim, was full of them in an impressive on-field display.
Drawn into the starting lineup to face Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara, a former Cy Young Award winner working his way back from a Tommy John surgery, Kim flashed all the tools that prompted the Dodgers to give him a three-year, $12.5-million contract.
Dodgers second baseman Hyeseong Kim throws to first during the first inning Monday against the Marlins. (Marta Lavandier / Associated Press)
He recorded two hits, following his opposite-field line drive in the fifth with a bloop RBI single an inning later. He stole his second career base, racing to second two pitches before Ohtani’s home run, just as he had as a pinch-runner the night before. He almost had a defensive web gem at second base, as well, charging to field a slow grounder in the eighth inning before flipping a toss with his glove that Freddie Freeman dropped at first base.
The Dodgers (24-11) had plenty of other contributors Monday. They got two hits each from Freeman (including a third-inning home run), Mookie Betts (his fifth multi-hit game out of the last six), Andy Pages and Teoscar Hernández (who left the game early with left hamstring tightness). They got four solid innings of bulk relief from Ben Casparius, the rookie right-hander who has been stretched out to compensate for the Dodgers’ banged-up rotation.
But no one’s performance was as meaningful as Kim’s. He got his first career hit, his first career RBI and a brief, joyful moment celebrating with the best player in the game.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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