Kim Do-yeong joins 20-20 club at 20 as Kia Tigers hold on to KBO lead

Kia Tigers infielder Kim Do-yeong fired a Ryu Hyun-jin pitch over the fence to join the 20-20 club on Sunday as the Gwangju club held on to first place on the KBO table.

Kia Tigers infielder Kim Do-yeong hits a home run at the top of the fourth of a game between the Tigers and the Hanwha Eagles at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on June 23. [YONHAP]

Kia Tigers infielder Kim Do-yeong fired a Ryu Hyun-jin pitch over the fence to join the 20-20 club on Sunday as the Gwangju club held on to first place on the KBO table.

Kim, 20, struck at the bottom of the fourth inning in the first game of a double header on Sunday, driving a solo homer out of the park off former big leaguer Ryu of the Hanwha Eagles. The big fly was his 20th of the season, putting him in the 20-20 club with 22 steals already on his line.

Kim is the second-youngest player ever to join the 20-20 club in the KBO and tied with former NC Dinos starter Eric Thames to become the third-fastest to hit the milestone — 73 games into the season. Only four KBO players have ever managed a 20-20 line before the All-Star break.

Ryu gave up three home runs in the game — taking his season total to four — with the seventh-place Eagles still holding on to grind out a 9-8 win. The league-leading Tigers still took the series, winning 8-3 on Friday and returning after the loss to win the second game of Sunday’s double header 4-1.

Kia won their midweek series as well, beating the LG Twins, who dropped from second to third, two games to one: 11-4, 5-7, 6-5.

The Samsung Lions took the Twins place in second, beating the fifth-place SSG Landers midweek, and then taking the week’s only sweep against the fourth-place Doosan Bears over the weekend.

The Lions lost Tuesday’s game 8-3 to the Landers before kicking off a five-game winning streak, beating the Landers 13-2, 4-0 and then the Bears, 7-4, 7-4, 10-4.

After losing to the Tigers in the week, LG continued to struggle over the weekend. The Seoul club dropped their series against the ninth-place KT Wiz — 2-3, 7-2, 3-4 — allowing the Lions to move 1.5 games clear in second.

Fourth-place Doosan had a better week, beating the sixth-place NC Dinos two games to one with a 6-2 win on Tuesday, 7-5 loss on Wednesday and 2-0 win on Thursday.

The Dinos may have failed to score a run in the Thursday game, but the club did not go hitless. In fact, Dinos’ designated hitter Son Ah-seop’s single off Bears starter Raul Alcantara at the top of the sixth could live in the KBO history books for many years to come.

That knock was the 2,505th hit of Son’s career, breaking the all-time KBO hit record. The veteran hitter, still going strong at 36, is likely to push that number considerably higher and has a realistic chance of becoming the first KBO player ever to hit 3,000 career hits.

Son Ah-seop of the NC Dinos poses with a trophy after breaking the KBO's career hits record at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul on June 20. [YONHAP]

Son and the Dinos turned things around over the weekend, edging out a win over the Landers with a 3-2 victory on Friday, a 12-4 loss on Saturday and a big 18-6 win on Sunday.

Down at the bottom of the table, the last-place Kiwoom Heroes had another difficult week, losing their midweek stand to the Eagles — 0-3, 11-14, 7-0 — and then dropping the weekend to the Giants — 5-2, 1-6, 2-10.

Moving into this week, the Tigers head on the road to take on the Giants in Busan while the fight between the Lions and Twins heats up as they face off in Seoul. The Bears face the Eagles in Daejeon, the Landers host the Wiz in Incheon and the Dinos visit the Heroes in Seoul.

Over the weekend the Tigers host the Heroes, the Lions visit the Wiz in Suwon, Gyeonggi, the Twins face the Bears in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, the Bears play the Landers in Seoul and the Eagles head to Busan to take on the Giants.

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