Padres’ Kim Ha-seong enjoys 1st multihomer game

Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres has reached a new career high in home runs with his first multihomer game in the majors.

Kim went deep twice against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Petco Park in San Diego on Monday (local time) and now has 14 home runs for the season.

He had 11 home runs in 150 games last season as a big league sophomore. He surpassed that mark Saturday and then homered twice for the first time in his big league career Monday to increase his career-best total.

Kim led off the game with a solo shot in the bottom of the first against starter Quinn Priester, turning on a 2-1 fastball for his third career leadoff blast.

The ball left Kim’s bat at 100.5 mph and traveled 387 feet to left-center field.

Then in the fifth inning, with the Padres trailing 8-1, Kim smoked a two-run homer off Priester’s 0-2 slider.

The second home run went 365 feet to left-center field at an exit velocity of 96.4 mph.

Kim went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored, but the Padres dropped the game 8-4.

In 96 games this year, Kim is batting .270/.363/.447 with 14 home runs, 37 RBIs and 18 steals.

Only one South Korean player, Choo Shin-soo, has put up at least 20 home runs and 20 steals in the same major league season. Choo did so in 2009 and 2010 for Cleveland, and again in 2013 for Cincinnati.