With rainouts of the high school games yesterday I ended up seeing quite a bit of both the Japan vs. Canada game and the Korea vs. Chinese Taipei game. With just two games each left to play, and the records being the way they are, it’s pretty clear who will be in semifinals.

All in all it was an ugly game for the Koreans as they blew an 8-0 lead and had to hold on for a 9-8 win against the Taiwanese (box). The team scored seven in the first inning, loading the bases for Lee Dae-ho, who had a two RBI single. He was 2 for 3 in the game and is probably the team’s MVP. Of course that didn’t stop Manager Kim from yanking him for a pinch runner in the 7th when the game got close. After seeing that I was hoping the game would end up in the bonus round so Kim could enjoy the fruits of his over-managing.

But I digress.

Ko Young-min also had a two run shot in the game. However the pitching was pretty mediocre, starter Bong Jeong-keun gave up 5 ER through 4 1/3, and a few of those were LOB that firestarter Han Ki-joon couldn’t strand. If there was any doubt before yesterday, Han doesn’t have any business pitching in a game with anything on the line. Against Chinese Taipei he came in with nothing on the line and left with the game close. His final line was 2 1/3 IP, 2 ER and 2 BB.

In the first inning there was a play by shortstop Chih-Sheng Lin where he fielded a ground ball and underhanded it to second. The ball went straight up in the air and pulled the second baseman off the bag. I’ve never seen a play quite like that. Perhaps Jackson can elaborate.

Japan beat tough luck Canada 1-0 (box) behind a sensational 10 K, 2 H, effort by Yoshihisa Naruse.  It was the Canadians fourth 1-run loss in the Olympics.  With the American’s win over China here are the standings:

Cuba 5-0
Korea 5-0
United States 3-2
Japan 3-2

the rest at 1-4 and 0-5.

Cuba and Korea play tonight, but I have to wonder if both teams will hold back a little. There’s little advantage to playing either the United States or Japan. Remember in the semifinal 1 will play 4 and 2 will play 3. The stage is being set for Korea to win every game during the regular schedule and then losing in the semifinal, much like it did in the WBC. Both Japan and the United States will be very dangerous teams to play in that semifinal round.

Today Cuba and Korea face off in the morning game while Japan plays China. The U.S. goes against Chinese Taipei. On Wednesday Japan and the U.S. will face off in what will be an interesting evening game. Korea plays the Dutch and the Cubans get China.