How Jung Hoo Lee is learning to patrol Oracle Park’s outfield

SAN FRANCISCO — Add roaming the majors’ toughest outfield to the list of cultural, linguistic and baseball adjustments Jung Hoo Lee faces during his transition from Korea to the major leagues.

In his second game at Oracle Park, the 25-year-old center fielder was introduced to the unique natural elements that led Mike Yastrzemski, who knows this turf better than anyone, to single out the waterfront ballpark of the Giants as “the toughest outfield.” play.”

With the first pitch at 6:06 p.m. Saturday, the sun was still shining behind home plate when Padres leader Xander Bogaerts lofted a pop fly to shallow center field. It should have been a routine play, but Lee lost the ball in the sun the moment it left Bogaerts’ stick, falling to the grass for a hit.

The misplay ultimately led to all four runs in the Giants’ 4-0 loss to the Padres.

Lee then contacted Yastrzemski, who said he was “pretty beat up about it,” but the Gold Glove runner-up echoed what manager Bob Melvin said after the game.

“I just told him, ‘Man, there’s nothing you can do. We’ve all lost the ball in the sun. We have all experienced this situation. Guess what, it’s going to happen again. There’s really nothing you can do,” Yastrzemski said. “The only thing I said is keep your head up and try to find a way to read a ball before It doesn’t reach the sun so you can hopefully be somewhere nearby.”

The ballpark that Lee now calls home has the well-known distinction in the league as one of the most annoying when it comes to sun angle during late afternoon and early evening games, and he said he hoped to use this mistake as a learning opportunity.

He was wearing sunglasses, but maybe he’ll change his pair.

An incidental detail as small as his glasses is something Lee hasn’t had to pay much attention to in the KBO, where he played the majority of his matches indoors. The 16,744-seat Gocheok Skydome was the home stadium for his team, the Kiwoom Heroes.

“My home stadium was a domed stadium, so I have a lot of experience in a dome and not much in broad daylight like today,” Lee said in Korean through interpreter Justin Han. “I will have to do my best not to repeat what I did today on the pitch. …I don’t want to repeat my mistakes.

Although Sunday’s series finale against the Padres marks only Lee’s third game at Oracle Park, he has already started to learn some of his other intricacies.

“I see the wind is strong here,” he said.

“No flag ever blows in the right direction when the wind is actually blowing,” added Yastrzemski, who has logged thousands of innings in the outfield here since 2019, finishing second for a Gold Glove in right field in 2021, and has even more wisdom to instill in the rookie who covers the field to his right.

“Eventually the sun is going to move and it’s going to be on me in right field and it’s not going to be on him anymore. But then you go into the wind. Then obviously the dimensions of the walls, the different kicks, the different angles and all the bounces that the ball can take. It just takes time to get used to it.