Lee Tae-keun, who moved from first to third on an errant pickoff throw, scored the winning run on a sac fly in the lower half of the ninth to give Korea a thrilling opening game 8-7 win over the United States. It was a huge opening game win for the Koreans, who had blown a two run lead in the top of the ninth (box here).
This was a seesaw game that saw the Korean team taking control, but leaving the door open each time. After the U.S. took a quick lead off former Atlanta Brave Bong Jung-keun with an RBI single by Matt Brown, but Koreans came back in the second with a two run shot by Lee Dae-ho off starter Brandon Knight.
Knight was not sharp and ended up with 6 ER over 4 1/3 innings. He was inconsistent and occasionally wild — uncorking a pitch to the backstop in the third that gave Korea a 3-1 lead. Later, after a walk to Ko Young-min and a single to Lee Jeong-wook, manager Davey Johnson made a questionable non-move in not pulling Knight for a southpaw to face the next two Korean lefthanded batters. Ichiro clone Lee Young-gyu slapped an RBI single and Lee Seung-yeop promptly doubled in another run. Knight was then removed.
Bong threw well, sticking mostly around 92-93. He was lifted in the 4th for sidearmer Chong Tae-hyon, who struckout six through 2 2/3 innings. He gave up just two hits, one of which was a HR off the bat of Giants prospect Nate Schierholtz.
With the lead going into the 9th Korea’s manager Kim Kyung-moon gave the ball to closer Han Ki-joo. Han is a nice pitcher, and dominates in Korea with a 94 MPH fastball that he locates on both sides of the plate. But honestly, Han is a very average pitcher if he plays in the U.S. and the Americans hammered him. Mike Hessman started the rally off with a homer than landed somewhere in south Mongolia. Taylor Teagarden smashed a single to center, which was followed by a another rocket off the bat of Brian Barden, which went for a double.
Here Kim made an interesting move, turning to Yoon Suk-min, normally a starter, brought on to the team just last week as a middle reliever/spot starter. With Samsung’s ace closer Oh Sung-hwan on the bench, Yoon came in and mystified the next two batters with a steady diet of sliders and splits. But after a walk to Terry Tiffee, Yoon hung a curveball to Matt Brown who promptly laced the ball for a two run base hit.
With a one run lead the Americans went with Jeff Stevens, who gave up the tying run to Lee Tae-keun, who then advanced to third on the pickoff attempt. Lee Jeon-wook hit a sac fly and Dexter Fowler’s throw wasn’t close.
This was a big win for Korea who get an easy game with China tomorrow before taking on Canada Friday. The U.S. gets the Dutch tomorrow before a big matchup with Cuba on Friday.
In losing to Korea the U.S. has put itself in a position where it probably needs to beat both Japan and Cuba to have a shot at the gold. This team has several questions after just one game. Highly touted Matt LaPorta was not only 0 for 4, but looked lost at the plate. I’d also be surprised to see John Gall 0 for 5 with 3Ks hitting leadoff again.
On the positive side the bullpen pitched well, and Brian Duensing looked especially great. Look for him to get a look working deeper in the bullpen.
16 responses so far ↓
1 Japan v Cuba impressions and Olympic baseball « Japan, Hockey, Baseball, etc. // Aug 14, 2008 at 12:51 am
[...] scored 2 runs to win dramatically against the US 8-7 after allowing 3 runs in the top of the frame (EWC’s take on the game). That must’ve been one dramatic game. (Game results and [...]
2 DJ // Aug 14, 2008 at 5:39 am
Looks like Korea’s on its way. Is this getting much attention in the ROK?
On a not-so-related note: I’ve read that a new 40,000 seat domed baseball stadium is being planned for Ansan. Groundbreaking will be early next year, grand opening in 2012–in time for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. True?
3 Shinsano // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:44 am
Yeah, it’s getting a fair amount of coverage. Especially the dramatic fashion in which the game ended.
Right, and a new domed stadium in Daegu as well. The mayor was talking up WBC when the city announced the plan…it’s a gigantic mega complex built for everything — gymnastics, swimming etc.
If I’m not mistaken the one in Daegu is larger and might be better suited for the WBC. That’s just my opinion. I was a little surprised the WBC didn’t look toward Munhak Stadium in Incheon for next year. That place is world class.
4 Simon Currie // Aug 14, 2008 at 8:42 am
Munhak Stadium handles baseball too?
WBC and other major baseball events in East Asia should be rotated among the three powers anyways, so the new dome in Daegu is good news.
5 Shinsano // Aug 14, 2008 at 9:22 am
Yeah, Munhak is where SK plays. Are you thinking of somewhere else?
I can kind of see why they’d want to play it safe and keep it in Japan two straight tournaments, but obviously they’ve got to be looking to expand and spread it. I could see Koreans being pretty good about attending games other than their own. I think Korea would treat an event like the WBC as a chance to leap up and look good on the world stage.
6 Simon Currie // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:04 am
Oh I see. For some reason I was under the impression that there were no domed baseball stadiums in Korea, and that’s why all early spring and late autumn international baseball events took place in Japanese domes or in Taiwan. Wonder why Korea hasn’t hosted one yet?
7 Simon Currie // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:05 am
Oh, and Japanese attendance has been rather dismal for non-Japan games in both WBC and Asia Series (and probably Asian qualifier too).
8 Shinsano // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:07 am
Ah, I see. No, Munhak isn’t domed. I was overlooking the fact that the WBC is in the spring and that the organizers might prefer a domed stadium. That might actually be a big reason they aren’t doing games in Korea.
9 Simon Currie // Aug 14, 2008 at 10:09 am
Oh yeah, of course it wouldn’t be domed. The only domed used in the 2002 World Cup was the Sapporo Dome with the funky but ridiculously expensive movable floating pitch system.
10 DJ // Aug 14, 2008 at 1:00 pm
The average high temperature in Incheon in March is, what, 45 degrees. There’ll be no spring baseball in Korea until they build those domes.
With more time to promote the event this time around, I bet the Japanese do a better job of filling Tokyo Dome for WBC 2009. If they don’t, then it’s a sure bet that the WBC organizers will look to ROK or Taiwan for a new venue.
(Having said that, I think there’s no doubt that Korea will host a round in 2013 if they get a dome or two by then. The whole point of the tournament, after all, is to spread the MLB gospel across the globe. And if Korea medals in the Olympics again, it’ll certainly staked its claim as one of the top baseball powers in the world and deserving of a WBC round.)
11 IronChef // Aug 14, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Han Ji-Chou looks looks like Eric Gagne.
12 Dan // Aug 14, 2008 at 3:45 pm
korea and china tied at 0 in pouring down rain….
chat here:
http://www.chatmaker.net/chatap/rooms/MYKBO/
13 Simon Currie // Aug 14, 2008 at 5:06 pm
They can’t have tie games, so if the game had already progressed beyond 5 innings, they’ll resume play on the off day?
Does anyone have the forecast for Beijing for tonight? I can only get the current weather. Deciding whether it’ll be worthwhile to head into town to watch Japan-Taiwan, if it’ll be played at all.
14 Shinsano // Aug 14, 2008 at 7:41 pm
It’s probably way after the fact Simon, but I just saw a newscaster talking with a back drop of Beijing behind her and it was pouring.
That said, they’ve posted the lineups for the Canada/Cuba game.
15 Simon Currie // Aug 15, 2008 at 10:38 am
The Japan-Taiwan game was played after a 1 hour rain delay. Now I’m curious about when they’re going to resume the China-Korea match, tied at 0.
16 Shinsano // Aug 15, 2008 at 11:03 am
They’re going to resume it on the 17th. I watched some of it, and I kept thinking what Koreans would do if the game went 0-0 into the magic 11th inning and they lost.
Really, the game shouldn’t have been played at all, it was pouring rain most of the time and they pulled the teams off the field two or three times. The batters couldn’t pick up the ball at all.
Leave a Comment