May 26, 2018: Shin-Soo Choo sets career homer record for Asian-born players with walk-off for Rangers against Royals

Signed as an amateur free agent by the Seattle Mariners out of the Republic of Korea at age 18, Shin-Soo Choo spent five seasons in the minor leagues before earning a September call-up in 2005. After being dealt to the Cleveland Indians during the 2006 season, he emerged as a major-league regular in 2008.1

Choo, who hit his first career homer against former Mariners teammate Felix Hernández in his Indians debut in July 2006, was a consistent home-run threat.2 His 14-homer campaign in 2008 was his first of 10 double-digit seasons. Starting in 2009, he hit 20 or more home runs seven times.

The 2018 season was Choo’s 14th in the majors and the fifth of a seven-year, $130 million contract he had signed with the Texas Rangers during the 2013-14 offseason. The 35-year-old Choo entered the third game of a four-game late-May series against the Kansas City Royals with 58 homers in his four-plus years in a Texas uniform, including a blast against Eric Skoglund in the Rangers’ 8-4 win in the previous day’s game. That homer gave him 175 in his major-league career, tying Japan’s Hideki Matsui for the most by an Asian-born player.

After consecutive American League West Division titles in 2015 and 2016, Texas slipped to third place in 2017 and entered this game sliding even further. The Rangers were 21-32 and in last place – already 13½ games behind the first-place Houston Astros. The Royals, just three years removed from the second World Series title in franchise history, were in fourth place in the AL Central with a 17-34 record, trailing first-place Cleveland by eight games.

In front of a crowd of 29,644 on an oppressively hot Saturday afternoon, Texas started 45-year-old Bartolo Colon, who was 2-2 with a 3.51 ERA in 10 games (8 starts). In the final season of his 21-year career, Colon had a lifetime record of 242-178; he was one victory away from tying Juan Marichal for the most wins by a pitcher born in the Dominican Republic and four wins from passing Dennis Martínez for the most by a Latin American pitcher.3

Colon’s mound opponent was 33-year-old right-hander Ian Kennedy, who was just 1-5 with a 5.30 ERA in 10 starts. He was seeking his first win since April 7. In his last three starts, Kennedy had struggled, giving up 19 runs in 15 2/3 innings.

Colon started strong by retiring the first six Royals, including strikeouts of Jorge Soler and Alex Gordon to end the second inning, but he ran into trouble in the third. Hunter Dozier led off with a single to shortstop and went to second on a groundout by Ryan Goins.

Kansas City then jumped on Colon for three hits within the next four pitches. Alcides Escobar singled Dozier to third; Jon Jay’s single to right field brought Dozier home with the game’s first run.4 Whit Merrifield followed with a double to score both Escobar and Jay and give Kansas City a 3-0 lead.

Kennedy began with two scoreless innings of his own, working around walks to Choo and Nomar Mazara in the first.5 In the bottom of the third, he gave up a one-out single to Delino DeShields, who went to second on Choo’s grounder and scored the Royals’ first run on a single by rookie Isiah Kiner-Falefa.6

Texas cut into the lead further in the fourth. Jurickson Profar started the inning with a triple to the gap in right-center; Joey Gallo followed with a double off the top of the right-center-field wall to make the score 3-2. With no one out, Rougned Odor sacrificed Gallo to third. Rookie first baseman Ronald Guzmán was intentionally walked to put two on before Kennedy ended the threat by retiring Carlos Pérez on a foul-pop bunt and DeShields on a foul to first baseman Dozier.

Kansas City skipper Ned Yost brought in rookie Brad Keller to replace Kennedy in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, Gallo walked, stole second, and went to third on Odor’s groundout to first; he scored to tie the game when Guzmán doubled to center on the first pitch.

After giving up the three runs in the third, Colon pitched well, yielding just a walk in the fourth and a leadoff double in the seventh, both to Dozier. He left after seven innings having allowed five hits and two walks with four strikeouts on a season-high 102 pitches.7

After Colon’s departure, Texas manager Jeff Banister used the Rangers’ bullpen to hold Kansas City scoreless; relievers José Leclerc, Chris Martin, and Alex Claudio combined to allow just one single in three innings.

Keller, Tim Hill, and Kevin McCarthy were equally effective for the Royals from the seventh through the ninth, giving up just a double to Profar.

It was still tied when Choo led off the bottom of the 10th. The left-hander hammered a 3-and-1 pitch from McCarthy to left-center for his eighth home run of the year, giving the Rangers a 4-3 win and passing Matsui.8 It was the third walk-off homer of his career and his first with the Rangers.9

“With a [3-and-1] count, I’m just looking for one pitch in one area, and try to swing hard,” Choo said.10

At least one of his teammates was not surprised by the home run. “Choo is one of the best hitters I’ve seen, the way he takes his at-bats every day,” Gallo said. “I went into the dugout and I said, ‘He’s going to hit a bomb.’” I could just feel it with him because his swing has been so good lately.”11

Choo was proud of his accomplishment. “My dad told me when I was young, ‘Always first. You need to be first. In sports, people think about the first person,’” Choo said. “I remembered that.”12

But he was also realistic, “I am not a home run hitter. I’ve just played in this league a long time. That’s not my focus,” he said. “[Matsui] only played 10 years in the big leagues. If he had played longer, he would have more home runs than me. Somebody was going to break the record.”13

That season Choo was selected as an All-Star for the only time in his career. He finished the season with 21 home runs, one away from his career high, which he had reached three times (2010, 2015, and 2017). In 2019 he set a new personal best with 24 homers and added five more in his final big-league season in 2020 to finish with 218 major-league home runs. Choo’s record lasted until September 17, 2024, when it was broken by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani when he homered against Darren McCaughan of the Miami Marlins.14

After four years in the KBO, the professional baseball league in South Korea, Choo retired from baseball for good after the 2024 season. In his KBO career, Choo hit .263 with 54 home runs, 205 RBIs, and 51 steals and played until age 42, making him the oldest player in KBO history.15

Author’s Note

The author attended this game on his 50th birthday with his wife, son, and sister. Because they were ready to get out of the 97-degree heat, the rest of his party was more excited than the Rangers were when Choo homered to end the game. 

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.  

Photo credit: Shin-Soo Choo, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted data from Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. He also reviewed a condensed MLB recording of the game, posted on YouTube.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TEX/TEX201805260.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2018/B05260TEX2018.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD2FUKY13M8

Notes

1 Choo was traded with a player to be named later for Ben Broussard and cash. On August 24, Seattle sent minor-leaguer Shawn Nottingham to Cleveland to complete the trade.

2 It was the only run in Cleveland’s 1-0 win on July 28.

3 Stefan Stevenson, “Colon, Choo Show Youngsters How It’s Done in Win Over KC,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 27, 2018: 1C.

4 Jay entered the game hitting .347 in 23 games in May.

5 Choo entered the game with 13 walks in his previous eight games. This was the 13th straight game in which he reached base safely. His streak reached 52 before ending on July 21 when he went 0-for-4. As of the end of the 2024 season, it was the longest single-season streak in Rangers history but short of the overall team record set by Will Clark, who reached in 58 straight games from September 6, 1995, to May 11, 1996.

6 Kiner-Falefa was starting at third with 39-year-old Adrian Beltré on the disabled list with a hamstring injury. Jeff Wilson, “When He Returns from Disabled List Will Be Up to Beltre,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 16, 2018: 1B.

7 Colon topped the 100-pitch mark one more time in his career, on July 26 in a loss to Oakland. On June 6 Colon passed Marichal with a victory in Texas’s 8-2 win over Oakland. He finished the season 7-12 with a 5.78 ERA. He ended with 247 wins, surpassing Martinez.

8 Choo reached the majors at age 22; Matsui was 29 years old when he debuted with the Yankees in 2003. He had three seasons in which he hit more homers than Choo’s career high of 24, including 31 in 2004.

9 This was the only walk-off homer allowed among the 17 career homers McCarthy surrendered in his five-year major-league career. Choo’s previous walk-off homer was on May 7, 2013, as a member of the Reds when he connected against Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel.

10 Associated Press, “Shin-Soo Choo’s 176 Career Homers Most by a Player Born in Asia,” ESPN.com, May 26, 2018, https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap?gameId=380526113.

11 Associated Press.

12 Associated Press.

13 Jack Baer, “Shin-Soo Choo Passes Hideki Matsui as Home Run Leader Among Asian-Born Players,” YahooSports.com, May 26, 2018, https://sports.yahoo.com/shin-soo-choo-passes-hideki-matsui-time-home-run-leader-among-asian-born-players-000916787.html.

14 As of the end of the 2024 season, Ohtani had 225 home runs.

15 “Former All-Star Choo Shin-soo Retires after 20 Years in MLB, KBO,” Korea JoongAng Daily, November 8, 2024, https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2024-11-08/sports/Baseball/Former-AllStar-Choo-Shinsoo-retires-after-20-years-in-MLB-KBO/2173528.