Xander Bogaerts Fittingly Joins Short List To Accomplish Odd Feat

Xander Bogaerts is an international man of (baseball) mastery.

The San Diego Padres shortstop is a native of Aruba who has now played star-level baseball on both coasts of the United States. The San Diego Padres infielder also speaks four languages.

He’s the perfect player to achieve what he did Wednesday in South Korea when he collected a hit in San Diego’s eventual loss over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the first contest of a two-game, season-opening set in Seoul.

As pointed out by MLB on X, Bogaerts is just the third player in major league history to have a hit in five different countries. In addition to South Korea, he also has knocks in America, Canada, England and Mexico.

Bogaerts joins Edgardo Alfonzo and Paul Goldschmidt as the only two players to achieve the feat.

Thursday was another eventful day at the ballpark for the former Red Sox shortstop, who now is a second baseman for the Friars. San Diego bounced back to win the second game, despite an odd sequence of events late in the game. Bogaerts was called out on strikes after being called for a pitch-clock violation. The by-the-book enforcement of the rule left the typically mild-mannered Bogaerts pretty heated before cooler heads prevailed.

Bogaerts also began the day by lacing a single up the middle off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the first pitch of the Japanese phenom’s career.

All in all, it was an eventful couple of days for ex-Red Sox. Former Sox MVP and current Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts finished a triple shy of the cycle Thursday. Betts went 4-for-5 with a home run and six RBIs, putting the bow on a six-hit sint in Korea following a 2-for-4 performance Wednesday.