Kim Do-yeong of the KIA Tigers hit his way into the record books in his first game back from injury, becoming the youngest player in South Korean professional baseball to reach 40 home runs, 100 runs batted in and 100 runs scored in a single season. At 22 years, 11 months and 11 days, he broke a mark Lee Seung-yuop had held for 27 years.
Kim went 3-for-4 with a walk, three RBIs and a run scored on the 13th against the Hanwha Eagles in a 2026 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, Jeolla Province. KIA won 9-2.
The performance lifted Kim to 40 home runs, 102 RBIs and 106 runs scored this season, making him the 18th player in KBO League history to post a 40-100-100 season. His age at the milestone, 22 years, 11 months and 11 days, surpassed the previous youngest mark of 22 years, 11 months and 20 days, set by Lee in 1999.
Kim returned only four days after the injury. He suffered a broken nose when a bunted ball struck him during a Sept. 9 game against the NC Dinos and was taken to a hospital, where he underwent a procedure to reset the fractured bone. He was discharged on the 11th and was back in the starting lineup on the 13th.
Batting third as the designated hitter, Kim made his presence felt from his first plate appearance. He drew a walk in the bottom of the first and later scored on a follow-up hit. He struck out in his second at-bat, but with KIA leading 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth, one out and a runner on third, he lined a single to left field to bring the runner home. In the bottom of the seventh, with no outs and a runner on second, he added another RBI on a single to center, and he drove in his third run with a double in the bottom of the eighth.
The layoff showed no sign of slowing him down. Kim reached base four times in his first game back, on three hits and a walk, adding punch to the lineup. With his swing in form, Kim joins the national team on the 14th to prepare for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
