Dinos catcher Yang Eui-ji earns KBO's top player award for August

All News 14:10 September 08, 2022

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- NC Dinos catcher Yang Eui-ji was named the best player in South Korean baseball for August on Thursday.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said Yang beat out seven candidates for the Player of the Month award for August, after earning 11 out of 31 votes from the media and 131,324 votes out of 330,994 votes cast by fans.

Yang's vote totals were converted to 37.58 points, with LG Twins closer Go Woo-suk finishing second at 27.93 points.

In this file photo from Aug. 23, 2022, Yang Eui-ji of the NC Dinos rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Lotte Giants during the bottom of the sixth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Changwon NC Park in Changwon, 380 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

Go himself had a strong August, as he did not allow any run in nine innings across nine appearances, while recording six saves.

But Yang went gangbusters last month, leading the KBO with a .403 batting average, .488 on-base percentage and .761 slugging percentage. He tied for the league lead in August with six home runs and ranked second with 22 RBIs. He was the only qualified hitter in August to bat over .400.

Yang is trying to keep the Dinos in the playoff hunt. Through Wednesday's action, they were seventh with a record of 51-63-3 (wins-losses-ties), 5.5 games out of the fifth and final postseason spot with 27 games to go.