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Another one out of Park

March 11, 2016

Minnesota Twins’ Byung Ho Park, left, of South Korea, high-fives teammate John Ryan Murphy after hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning of a spring training interleague baseball game against the Miami Marlins in Fort Myers, Fla., Friday, March 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

By The Korea Times Los Angeles staff

Park Byung-ho is making Minnesota Twins scouts look really smart, as he launched his third home run in four games Friday.

The 29-year-old Korean slugger started as the starting first baseman and sixth in batting order against the Miami Marlins in Grapefruit League action in Florida and continued to sizzle. He was given Thursday off, but came right back to hit another one out of the park.

He grounded out to shortstop in the second inning against Marlins starter Jarred Cosart, who is a legitimate Major Leaguer (13-11 with 3.69 ERA in 2014), but in his second at-bat in the fourth, he went the other way to send Andre Rienzo’s fifth pitch over the left field wall. Rienzo has 5.90 ERA over 140 1/3 innings in the Majors.

Park then flied out to left field in the fifth, before being replaced by James Bresford.

The Twins ended up losing the game 6-5, but Park’s preseason batting average went up from .313 to .316 (6 for 19) and he leads the team with six runs-batted-in. After a 1 for 8 start, including the 11 pitch three-strikeout debut, he has been on fire, going 5 for 11 (.454) with three home runs.

Even with $12.85 million the Twins had to pay Park’s former Korean team, the Nexen Heroes, he is starting to look like a bargain at $12 million over four years.