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| Pittsburgh Pirates' Kang Jung-ho watches a solo home run off St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Luke Weaver during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Tuesday. AP-Yonhap |
Kang Jung-ho and Erik Gonzalez have won starting jobs in the infield with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
General manager Neal Huntington said Monday that Kang has beaten out Colin Moran at third base and Erik Gonzalez has won the shortstop competition over Kevin Newman.
"It was not an easy decision because all four guys, in their own way, had legitimate claims to be the regular,'' Huntington said.
Kang is just 5 for 28 (.185) with 13 strikeouts this spring but all five hits have been solo home runs. Moran was 6 for 28 (.214) with a double and a homer through the weekend.
Moran, however, had committed four errors while Kang had two.
"The power has been real," manager Clint Hurdle said of Kang. "It's spring training, but it's five homers. We don't have anybody else that's hit five homers."
Kang missed the entire 2017 season and the beginning of 2018 because he was unable to secure a work visa to travel from his native South Korea following a third DUI arrest. He then underwent wrist surgery last year before returning to the Pirates for the final three games of the season.
The Pirates beat the Rays 4-2 on Monday behind a strong start from Nick Kingham, who made his final bid for the fifth starter job. Kingham retired his first 11 batters, struck out five and allowed two hits over five scoreless innings.
Charlie Morton allowed two runs over five innings for Tampa Bay against his former team. (AP)
