Padres News: HSK Credits His Abs for Avoiding Injury in Headfirst Dive to Third Base

The San Diego Padres have thriving behind a ton of huge play from their role players and the likes of Trent Grisham and Ha-Seong Kim have been going above and beyond. They are finally trending back upwards towards .500 and have been able to string together a number of good performances against both the Colorado Rockies and the Cleveland Guardians.

Kim has been quite the player to watch this entire season as he has not only come up huge at the plate in multiple key matches but he continues to improve on the defensive side of things and has been their most versatile option. When Manny Machado was out with a fractured hand a couple of weeks ago, he did everything he could to hold down the infield.

The 27-year-old has been putting together quite the case for him to be named an All-Star very soon and his fWAR and overall value are starting to place him on levels with the biggest stars in baseball. One thing that separates him from the rest of the pack is the heart and hustle that he plays every single game with.

There was a specific play during San Diego's Thursday loss to Cleveland in which he took a risky run towards third base in the fifth inning and decided to dive headfirst in attempt to make it. He got scraped up a little bit but described his thoughts during the play and credited his abs as to why he did not get hurt.

“As soon as Brandon made contact I knew it was a slow roller … I knew I was gonna turn (around) third base for sure no matter what,” said Kim. “And then as soon as I saw (Guardians first baseman) Josh Bell made a slide, I just didn’t look back. So I just wanted to stay aggressive. I wasn’t thinking about getting hurt. … I just hoped for the best. It was fine, I’ve got some abs.”

(Via The San Diego-Union Tribune)

We love to see this attitude from Kim!