Roger Bernadina man of the match

The Kia Tigers are coming off a slow start. So far the team is 12-11 and in third place behind the second place SK Wyverns and the first place Doosan Bears. But last night, the Tigers played the league-leading Doosan Bears and beat them with a monster score. Roger Bernadina had a big part in this win.

It started in the first inning when Kim Sun-Bin hit a leadoff double in the gap to left-center field. Bernadina drove him in with a single to center field. Kim Joo-Chan’s home run to left field, took Roger Bernadina with him to give the Kia Tigers a 3-0 lead.

In the second inning, Roger singled again, this time to right-center field. But his single did not lead to more runs for the Tigers.
After the Tigers scored three more runs in the third inning, Roger led off the fourth with a 375ft solo shot to right field, to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead. Back-to-back doubles and a single drove in two more runs so the Tigers had a commanding 9-0 lead over the Bears.

The Tigers offense exploded once more in the fifth inning. With a runner on first base, Roger doubled to center field to put runners in scoring position. A single by Kim Joo-Chan drove in both runners, followed by a home run to center field by Na Ji-Wan.

If that wasn’t enough, Roger Bernadina scored the fourteenth run in the seventh inning on a sac fly, after he had gotten on base by drawing a walk.

So Roger went 4 for 5 with a dinger, a walk and four runs scored. Just like the Tigers, Roger had a slow start but with this superb outing, he raised his batting average to .289. But still, his numbers do not match those of 2017. Especially with runners in scoring position, Roger is still well behind: .331 in 2017, .258 in 2018. Right now Roger hits a home run every 4.5 game, so when he continues at this pace, he may improve the number of home runs he hit in 2017 (27).