I’m in Seoul watching the Bong-hwang high school baseball tournament, but believe you me I was tuned into the Japan/Korea game last night (box). Actually it was my birthday and several of us gathered at a pretty goofy place called Beautiful Beer to watch not only the game — but also Jang Mi-ran’s amazing record breaking weightlifting win.
I have to say last night’s game was about as much fun as I’ve ever had watching Korean baseball. I can’t go into the game too much now because I have to get to the stadium (due to rainouts I’ll be watching 4 1/2 games today), but it was something else. I especially liked the way Manager Kim used Kwon Hyuk and Chong Tae- hyong in the 9th after Han Ki-joo’s ineffectiveness (again). I’ve always had trouble understanding why Han is so dominating in the KBO, but that’s definitely getting fleshed out in pitching against international competition.
Tsuyoshi Wada was terrific (6 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 10 K) and it was kind that his performance will be completely overshadowed by the fact that Japan lost. And actually Kim Kwang-hyun was spot on for the Koreans (5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 7 K). I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take the mound for whatever medal game the team ends up in. Hitoki Iwase looked awfully average, but Korea bursting open at the seams in the 9th…there wasn’t much stopping them once they got the rally going. Abe Shinnosuke’s terrible throw into centerfield attempting to throw out Lee Jeong-wook at second was the capper.
Today is the off day, but Korea will finish off it’s rain delayed game with China from a couple days ago. Japan plays Canada on Monday, which would be a dangerous game for the Japanese — Canada is going to unleash some frustration on a team at some point. Korea will play Chinese-Taipei and then Cuba on Tuesday.
2 responses so far ↓
1 hansioux // Aug 17, 2008 at 9:05 am
well, first of all, happy birthday Shinsano. and Korea is probably the best looking Asian team so far. With this win, i hope they can end the 0:0 through 4 inning game with China today with a bit of firework display.
2 Simon Currie // Aug 17, 2008 at 11:54 am
Happy birthday!!
Hoshino totally mismanged the lineup AND the bullpen. Making the classic old school mistake of putting your worst hitter in the 2 hole in Araki. Having the defensively superior catcher Satozaki DHing and hitting 9th for some reason, and Abe’s inferior defense was costly with that throwing error. Then he left pitchers in too long, and Iwase is getting old and it shows, while shutdown relief ace Fujikawa was still available in the pen. Disaster managing (from the player selection stage).
But Japan’s in the logjam for 3rd and 4th playoff positions with the States. So, it could turn out like WBC once again, if Hoshino doesn’t botch things up too much.
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