SEOUL, June 16 (Yonhap) — Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants keeps climbing up the big-league leaderboard in triples.

Lee hit his fifth triple of the season, and third of this month, in a 5-4 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday (local time).

It was Lee’s only hit of the game in five at-bats. He is now batting .265/.327/.433 in 70 games.

With five three-baggers, Lee is tied for second in the National League (NL) with the Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani. Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks leads the NL with eight triples.

Batting leadoff, Lee grounded out to second in the top of the first and then grounded out to first in the third.

Then in the fourth inning, with the Giants down 2-1 and men at first and second, Lee came through with a triple down the right field line to cash in both runners and put the Giants up 3-2.

The lead didn’t last long, as the Dodgers responded with a three-run homer by Andy Pages in the fifth.

The Giants got a run back in the top of the eighth but couldn’t get any closer.

Lee flied out to right field in the sixth inning before lining out to second in the eighth in his final trip to the plate.

This was the first three-game series between the two NL West rivals, and it was hyped up as the first meeting in Major League Baseball between Lee and the Dodgers’ South Korean player Kim Hye-seong. The two close friends were both drafted by the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization in 2016 and played together for seven years before Lee signed with the Giants in late 2023.

Kim joined him in the big leagues by landing a deal with the Dodgers in January this year.

Kim began the season in the minors and has been platooned at second base, shortstop and center field. Kim only played in the second game of this series and went 1-for-4 with an RBI as the Giants won 11-5.