Team Korea Beats China, On to the Gold Medal Game

Korea beat China 7-1 on Thursday afternoon to move on to the final game. Taiwan beat a team of Japanese amateurs to earn their spot in the final.

KIA Tigers starter Yang Hyeon-jong threw six innings of one-run ball against China. Yang allowed only three hits, two walks and one hit batsman while striking out five. Choo Shin-soo started in right field and finished 1-1 with three walks. Choo blasted a solo homer and scored three runs. Choo must really, really not want to do his military service. First baseman Kim Tae-gyun and Park Kyeong-wan both drove in a pair of runs as Korea cruised to an easy W.

The Asian Games continue on Friday night at 7 PM Korea time.

Korea Pummels Pakistan, On To the Knockout Stage

Team Korea beat Pakistan 17-0 in a game that was limited to only five innings. Team Pakistan mustered only two hits and committed five errors while watching the Korean professionals spray line drives all over Guangzhou. Kim Myeong-su got the start for Korea. Kim has yet to throw a pitch in the KBO. He was a draft pick of the Lotte Giants and he was too much for the Pakistanis. Kim threw 2 1/3 innings and only gave up one hit and struck out three.

Team Korea continues their march to the gold medal game against China at 1 PM Korea time on Thursday.

Weekend Roundup

SK met the Chiba Lotte Marines at the Tokyo Dome and lost the game 3-0. The SK offense was missing a few of their regulars due to the Asian Games, but they looked like they hadn't swung a bat in a month. The Wyverns were limited to only four baserunners. If it weren't for singles from left fielde Park Jae-sang and catcher Jeong Sang-ho, they would have been no-hit. It was cool to see Ken Kadokura get a chance to pitch in his home country, but the result was disappointing.

The Korean National team beat Taiwan 6-1 on Saturday night. Team Korea was powered by a pair of early two run homers from DH Choo Shin-soo and a solid effort from starter Ryu Hyeon-jin. Ryu tossed six innings(67 pitches, 39 strikes) of one-run baseball. He limited Taiwan to only five hits and one walk while striking out four.

Team Korea also played Hong Kong's national team on Sunday night. The final was 15-0. That makes the game sound close. The game was stopped after 6 innings due to the slaughter rule.

The national team gets to see if they can slaughter Pakistan on Tuesday at 1 PM Korean time. I think Team Korea is a safe bet to make it out of the group stage.

Odds and Ends

Outfielder Park Yong-taek signed a 4-year deal to stay with the LG Twins.

SK played a two-game series with CPBL champ Brother Elephants last weekend. Both teams looked like they hadn't played in weeks. SK lost the first game 3-2 because they were shut down by the Elephants'' foreign pitchers. Orlando Roman threw seven innings of two-run ball. He gave up only six hits, two walks and a hit batsman while stiking out eight. Carlos Castillo threw two scoreless innings to earn the win. Jeon Byeong-doo threw 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to keep SK in the game after Gary Glover was chased from the game in the third inning. SK actually held a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning, but a rusty bullpen allowed the Elephants to win on a walk-off double.

SK took the second game 5-2 behind a solid game from Ken Kadokura. Kadokura threw seven scoreless innings. Ken allowed only six hits and one walk while striking out six. SK rallied for two runs in the sixth and three more in the seventh to essentially put the game out of reach. First baseman Lee Ho-joon went 2-3 with an RBI. Outfielder Lim Hoon came in as a defensive sub and went 1-1 with a pair of RBIs.

The next baseball action we'll be able to see on the peninsula is on Saturday. SK will play the Chiba Lotte Marines at the Tokyo Dome at 2 PM Korea time while the Korean national team will play the Taiwanese national team at 7 PM Korean time.

Japan 5, Korea 3 (10) Turn Out the Lights...

The party's over.



Both sides left everything on the field. The difference in this game was pitching. Japan's Hisashi Iwakuma threw a gem. He tossed 7 2/3 strong innings. He surrendered a homer to Choo Shin-soo in the 5th, but other than that he was essentially untouchable and if he did allow a ball to be hit hard, a fielder of some sort would leap in front of it. He was noticably laboring through the 8th and he was finally lifted after allowing a 2nd Korean run to score. He threw 97 pitches in the game, 54 were strikes. He allowed only 2 runs on 4 hits and 1 walk with 6 K's.

Yu Darvish came in for the 9th inning. I was stunned to see him striding out from the bullpen. He had just closed out the game against the US. I can't imagine his club is going to be very happy that he worked two days in a row. The second of which he threw 41 pitches. He struck out pinch hitter Jeong Geun-woo and walked the next 2 batters. Then, Choo Shin-soo struck out swinging. Third baseman, Lee Beom-ho delivered an RBI single through the left side to tie the game at 3. Predictably, Koh Yeong-min struck out swinging.

Bong Jung-geun wasn't exactly the "일본 킬러"(their word, not mine) the Korean media made him out to be. Bong threw 94 pitches during his 4 innings of work. He allowed only 1 run(unearned) on 6 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 1. The Japanese hitters worked deep into every count. The goal wasn't to beat Bong, but to wear him out and get into the Korean bullpen. Japan succeeded.

The Korean bullpen wasn't bad, in fact Jeong Hyeon-wook did his best to keep them in the game for 3 innings. Lim Chang-yong ran into trouble in the 10th. I have no idea why he was out there instead of Yoon Seok-min. Lim got into trouble early in the 10th and nearly pitched his way out of it. He was ahead of Ichiro 1-2, but couldn't put him away. Ichiro fouled off 4 pitches during his 8-pitch at bat. He finally drove a 2-RBI single into center field to give Japan the lead for good.



Darvish stayed on to record the final 3 outs in the 10th and the party was on. Go crazy, Tokyo.



This was a fun WBC. I'm not a huge fan of the final result, but I think it put the world on notice that some fine baseball is being played outside of the Americas and not just in Japan.

Next, KBO opening day is less than 2 weeks away! I know this guy is excited!

This World Baseball, Just Got A Little More Classic! Korea 10, Venezuela 2

"Korea advances in the WBC!"

Wow.

I thought this one would be A LOT closer. Then, I realized Carlos Silva was starting for Venezuela. Unless he's in a Twins uni and playing against the White Sox, Carlos Silva is awful. Carlos didn't disappoint me. He didn't get much help in the field. Venezuela committed 3 errors during his, erm, "outing" and 5 in total. The 5 errors is a WBC record. Congratulations! Silva stuck around long enough to allow 7 runs( 6 earned) on 6 hits and one walk. Only 4 of the hits stayed in the park.

Yoon Seok-min pitched his guts out. Yoon tossed 6 1/3 strong innings. He allowed both Venezuela runs on 7 hits and 1 walk. He added 4 K's. 12 of the 19 outs he recorder came via the ground ball.

At the plate for Korea, Choo Shin-soo finally showed up. Big League Choo clubbed a 3-run bomb in the first inning. His homer gave Korea a 5-0 advantage. He added 2 walks and 1 HBP(again!) to his total. In the 2nd inning, Kim Tae-gyun added another homer to his total. KBO batting champ Kim Hyeon-su finished the game 3-3 with a double, an RBI, 2 runs scored and a walk. Whenever the Venezuelans made a mistake, the Koreans made them pay. The Venezuelans made a lot of mistakes.

Korea is on to the finals! Now, they get to watch tomorrow's(today's?) Japan/USA game to find out exactly who they'll face. I'm secretly terrified of a match up against the USA. IF the Koreans play the USA and IF the US team wins, I just hope there is exactly 0 controversy. I don't want more incidents like this. I'm sure my fears are completely unfounded, but I'd be lying if I said I haven't been privately dreading this.

Japan 6, Korea 2

Well, meh. This was essentially a meaningless game. It was only played for seeding purposes. Japan gets to play the USA on Sunday and Korea has to face Venezuela on Saturday.

KBO batting champ, Kim Hyeon-su, got the party started right in the first inning with an RBI ground rule double to give Korea a 1-0 advantage. In the top of the 2nd, Japan's Seiichi Uchikawa hit a solo homer to tie the game. Shuichi Murata singled and advanced to second on center fielder Lee Taek-geun's fielding error. He advanced to third on Choi Jeong's throwing error. To be fair, Choi was playing out of position. I can't remember him ever playing shortstop before. Murata scored on an RBI single from Yasayuki Kataoka to give Japan a 2-1 advantage.

Third baseman Lee Beom-ho tied the game in the 7th inning on a solo homerun. Japan answered right back by scoring 3 in the 8th and 1 more in the 9th to take a 6-2 lead.

The Korean bullpen was awful and the team looked lethargic in the field. Oh Seung-hwan, Kim Kwang-hyun and Lim Chang-yong combined to surrender 4 runs during the last two innings. To be fair, they didn't get much help in the field. The Korean team committed 3 errors in the game after committing only 2 in the previous 6 games. The Japanese team also committed 3 errors, but the Korean team never really made them pay for any of them. If the Korean team made a mistake, the Japanese pounced all over it.

This is a much better way to promote Korean culture than Dokdo signs.

Next up for the Korean team is Venezuela on Saturday at 8 PM. I'm guessing Hanhwa ace Ryu Hyeon-jin gets the starting nod for Korea.

Eff Yu Darvish!!! Korea 4, Japan 1

Heading into this game, I was wondering which Korean team would show up. The one that got slaughtered in Tokyo or the one that played their guts out and scratched out a 1-0 victory in... Tokyo. If today's result is indication, the latter is the truer example.

The Koreans were helped out by a wild Yu Darvish. It appeared that Yu had trouble getting his slider over for strikes. The Koreans were able to lay off the slider and look for the straighter stuff. Team Japan shortstop, Kataoka Yasuyuki, made a key error in the first inning that allowed the 1st Korean run to score and put runners on 1st and 2nd with none out. Darvish walked Kim Tae-gyun to load the bases. After a Choo Shin-soo strikeout, Lee Jin-yeong singled to drive in two runs.

Darvish settled in after the first inning. He struck out the side in the 2nd. Darvish managed to last 5 innings. He allowed 3 runs(2 earned) on 4 hits and 1 walk with 7 K's.

The real story on the mound was Bong Jung-geun. Bong has emerged as one of the leaders of this Korean squad during the WBC. He gutted through 5 1/3 innings allowing only 1 run on 3 hits and 3 walks with 1 K. Bong recorded 12 of the 16 outs via the groundball. After Bong made his exit, it was time for the Korean bullpen to take over. Yoon Seok-min, Kim Kwang-hyeon and Lim Chang-yong combined to throw 3 1/3 scoreless with 4 hits and 4 K's.

Neither squad offered much at the plate. The Korean side did a much better job of capitalizing on mistakes than the Japanese team did.

Team Japan catcher, Kenji Johjima, was ejected in the 7th after he was called out on strikes. He dropped his bat at the plate and refused to pick it up when asked by home plate umpire, Hunter Wendelstedt.

Korea has already clinched a spot in the semis. They will have another game on Thursday at 9 PM ET against the winner of tomorrow's Cuba/Japan game.

Also, these guys showed up again...Funny, I didn't see one for Takeshima. Or the Liancourt Rocks. This nonsense is only going to get worse in Los Angeles.

Korea 8, Mexico 2

Well, well, well. This was a very pleasant surprise.

I didn't have any afternoon classes, but I had to stay in the office. A small group of us watched the English broadcast on my computer. This game really wasn't very fan friendly. It was long, slow and dull. If we weren't playing a game of rummikub, we probably would have quit watching.
Ryu Hyeon-jin really struggled with command. It took him 65 pitches to throw 2 2/3 innings. Ryu allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and 1 walk with 3 K's. He didn't look nearly as sharp as he did against Japan or Taiwan. Jeong Hyeon-wook tossed 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Kim Kwang-hyeon also came on to retire 2 batters. I'm assuming this outing was more to give Kim some confidence heading into his next start than it was to use him as a reliever. Yoon Seok-min struck out 3 during his 1 1/3 innings of relief work.

At the plate, Korea was able to turn Petco Park into a Homer Haven. Actually, I think the Mexican pitching had more to do with the homers than the ballpark did. I've been lead to believe that Petco is more of a pitcher's park. Lee Beom-ho got the party started with a solo homer in the 2nd. After tying the game at 2 in the 2nd inning, Kim Tae-gyun hit another solo shot to give the Korean side a 3-2 advantage. Ko Yeong-min added another solo shot in the 5th. Team Korea tacked on 4 insurance runs off a very mediocre Mexican bullpen.

After the shaky start from Ryu, Korea dominated the game. I hate to write this, but 8-2 makes this sound close.

The Korean victory coupled with Japan's shutout win over Cuba has set up a round one rematch. Yu Darvish will likely take the mound for the Japanese. I've got to think that Bong Jung-geun is going to get another crack at the Japanese. It was Bong's gutsy 5 1/3 shutout innings against Team Japan that helped them win the first round.



This is the worst acronym ever. They couldn't even come up with something for "O." How about "our?" I thought of that without even trying. Also, what does Barack Obama have to do with baseball. He is a big White Sox fan. Now, we all know that makes him really cool, but it has nothing to do with the WBC. How about coming up with one for Korea?

I've done my best to stay away from stuff like this(being a blog about baseball and not politics and all), but this is a little irritating. Nothing says "WBC" like a politically charged sign that no one outside of Korea knows anything about. I guarantee Charlie Steiner spent 20 minutes trying to figure out which one of the players was nicknamed "Dokdo."

Team Korea Lands in the US, Loses 2 Exhibitions

Kang Min-ho satisfies his "오빠부대." Bonus points for the white dude in the Dodgers hat trying to get his attention.

Meh.

Double Meh.

I really didn't want to post about these, but there was nothing else going on in Korean baseball this week. I decided it would be better to post.

I'm guessing jet lag played a part in Korea's first loss. That and rust. Son Min-han threw for the first time in weeks and he got absolutely lit. It also sounds like Kim Kwang-hyeon ran out of gas in the 3rd inning(?!?). That sounds like it warrants concern with the season a few weeks away. I'm guessing his pitch count was up around 60 or 70. The MLB website didn't feel like divulging that information and I am far too lazy to count.

Today's game was a lot better than yesterday's. The Korean team actually held a 2-1 lead after 6 innings! But, the Korean bullpen surrendered the tying run in the 7th on an RBI double from Blake DeWitt. Them in the 8th inning, Dodgers 2nd baseman, Chin-lung Hu drove in the go ahead runs on an RBI single.

Jeong Won-sam started for Team Korea. He tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings. He allowed only 2 hits and struck out 1.

Next for Team Korea is Karim Garcia's Team Mexico on Sunday at 11 PM ET. I believe that works out to 1 PM Monday afternoon in Korea, but I may be mistaken.

Korea 1, Japan 0

I'd like to say that this was a brilliantly played, tense battle, but that wouldn't really be true. This game was a brilliantly played, tense battle. Last night was perhaps the sloppiest 1-0 game I've ever seen.

Now the both Japan and Korea were throwing some leather last night, but when the winning side makes 5(5!) baserunning errors you can't say it's a well-played game. During the game against China, the Korean third base coach actually tried to tackle a runner to stop him from advancing. He missed the tackle and the runner was out by 15 feet. Last night, he stopped trying to tackle runners. I got the impression that he realized his players were going to be overaggressive and get into all kinds of wacky situations.

The Korean baserunning was offset by their brilliance on the mound. Bong Jung-geun pitched his guts out. He threw 5 1/3 innings of 3-hit baseball. He struck out 2 and it seemed like everything was a groundball to the left side. Lim Chang-yong tossed 1 2/3 innings of relief to nail down the save. His stuff was absolutely electric.

Kim Tae-gyun provided all the offense Korea would need when he drilled an RBI single down the third base line in the 4th inning.

Aaron at the EWC gave last nights' game a great write up and I agree with a lot of his observations. Where is Kang Min-ho? Did he sleep with Kim In-sik's daughter or something? I thought we might see Park Kyeong-won for Kim Kwang-hyeon's start(they're battery mates with SK), but to have him play the entire series is ridiculous.

The Korean team gets to rest for a week and hang out in San Diego waited the result from Group B. I've got to think Ryu Hyeon-jin is going to open the 2nd round. It will be interesting to see who Kim pegs as the #2 starter. Could it be Bong again?

Korea 14, China 0 (7)

And balance is restored back to the universe.

Yoon Seok-min gave Korea exactly what they needed after their embarrassing loss to Japan. Yoon worked 6 shutout innings allowing only 2 hits and striking out 4. Everything was a lazy fly ball.

Korea drew 7 walks and 3 Korean batters were hit by pitches. Choo Shin-soo was drilled for the 2nd consecutive game. He's got to be wondering what he did to deserve all this. First, a sore elbow, struggles at the plate and now constantly getting drilled. All he wanted to do was represent his country and earn some karma with the baseball gods. My how they've punished him.

Third baseman Lee Beom-ho and shortstop Park Ki-hyuk both drove in 3 runs last night. Lee drilled a 2-run homer in the 4th inning.

The Chinese team was fairly awful in all facets of the game. The couldn't pitch. They couldn't hit(2 hits!) and they had trouble in the field(2 errors).

Korea faces off against Japan again. I have no idea who's pitching. Ryu Hyeon-jin only tossed a few innings in his first appearance. He couldn't do any worse than Kim Kwang-hyeon....could he?

Japan 14, Korea 2 (7)

There was a game last night? I hadn't heard anything.


In all seriousness the only excitement for the Korean side was Kim Tae-geun's 2-run bomb in the 1st inning.

Kim Kwang-hyeon suffered one of the worst outings of his career. He surrendered 8 runs(all earned) in his 1 1/3 innings of work. 3 of the 4 outs he recorded were via the strikeout. Nothing else good or interesting happened for the Korean side.



This game was completely forgettable. Here's hoping Team Korea can put it out of their minds and get ready to play a hungry Chinese team tonight at 630 PM local time. Yoon Seok-min will probably start for Korea. The loser will be sent home.

Korea 9, Chinese Taipei 0

Another first for my blog, I'm actually linking to an MLB.com news story.

The Koreans have just won their 10th consecutive international match. A perfect 9-0 in Beijing and now a perfect 1-0 in Tokyo.

The game ball goes to right fielder, Lee Jin-yeong. Lee clubbed a grand slam in the 1st inning to give the Korean team a 6-0 lead. 1st baseman Kim Tae-gyun started the scoring with a 2-rbi single in the first. Third baseman Lee Dae-ho added an RBI single in the 5th. 2nd baseman Jeong Geun-woo delivered a 2-run bomb in the 6th to give us our 9-0 final.

Cleveland Indians OF, Choo Shin-soo, started at DH for the Korean team. He looked like a guy who had been shutdown for a week. He finished the game 1-3 with a run scored and walk, but he appeared to struggle with his timing.

On the mound, Ryu Hyeong-jin and Bong Jung-geun both tossed 3 shutout innings. The 2 KBO aces combined to allow only 3 hits and 1 walk during the 1st 6 innings of work.

Quote of the game...

"Somewhat similar to the Chinese lineup..." - ESPN broadcaster Jon Sciambi on the Chinese Taipei starting lineup. John, not only does it look similar, but they played about as well.

Korea will play the Japanese team tomorrow at 7pm local time. KBO MVP Kim Kwang-hyeon will likely start against Daisuke Matsuzaka.

That Was A Scary 5 Minutes...

A nation...whew...breathes a sigh...of relief.

I guess Choo felt some pain around his elbow and the Cleveland Indians flew into hysterics. For those of you sleeping on Choo in your fantasy league this bears watching. Choo has a history of being brittle. He missed time in '05, '07 and '08 with various ailments.

I especially like the photo of Choo stepping off the airplane...



If a every picture had to say a thousand words, this one would run out of steam around 20. Hot luggage carousel action! action! action!

Yomiuri Giants Stand Tall Against Korea, Win 3-0

Last night's 3-0 final makes the game sound close. The Korean team was sleep walking during this one. While the game itself was a bit of a snooze, there was some intruige to this one. Lee Seung-yeop started at first base for the Giants. Before the game, everyone was smiles and handshakes. During the game...everyone was smiles and handshakes.

The only real excitement was during the singing of the Korean national anthem. During the broadcast, they showed the Korean guys trying to look stoic during the anthem. Then, they cut to a shot of a very forlorn Lee Seung-yeop.

Lee started the game with a bang. With runners on 1st and 3rd and 2 out in the 1st inning, Lee clubbed a double off of Korean starter, Yoon Seok-min to score 2 runs. Lee would add an infield single in the 5th. Yomiuri's foreign ringer, Alex Ramirez clubbed a solo homer in the 3rd to give us our 3-0 final.

Lee Dae-ho was the only Korean player(other than LSY) to record an extra base hit. He finished 1-4 with a double. I get the impression that there was more interest in the postgame dinner with Lee than there was in the actual game itself.

The Korean team finished its exhibition schedule with a 5-1-1 record, but 4 of the wins and 1 tie came against the Hanhwa Eagles.

Koreans Edge Seibu Lions

In their most recent tuneup for the WBC, the Mighty Taeguk Warriors defeated the defending NPB champs, Seibu Lions, 4-2. Earlier this week the Lions defeated the Japanese National team 7-2.

Korea got the party started right in the first inning. Leadoff man, Lee Jeong-wook, singled, stole second and was driven in on an RBI single from leftfielder, Kim Hyeon-su. Seibu tied the game in the top(Wouldn't the Lions be the home team in Japan? Whatever) of the 3rd. The Korean team answered in the bottom of the 3rd in a big way. Cleanup hitter/1st baseman Kim Tae-gyun clubbed a two-run bomb to put Korea in the lead. Japan mounted a fake rally against Korean ace, Kim Kwang-hyeon in the 5th and squeaked out a run to make it a 3-2 ballgame. Korea tacked on an insurance run in the 6th on a Lee Jeong-wook RBI groundout.

Kim Kwang-hyeon wasn't in midseason form, but he wasn't awful. I got the impression, I'm basing this solely on body language and my own guess, that he was just working on location. His sideburns, however, were magnificent...

The only injury worth mentioning is to closer, Lim Chang-yong. He picked up a bruised elbow over the weekend when he was hit by a line drive. I wouldn't be surprised if he was held out of the opening round.

The Korean National team will face off against the Yomiuri Giants at the Tokyo Dome tomorrow.

KBO Announces the Official WBC Roster, Park Jin-man is Ready to Cry

Not baseball related, but another awesome hit from the ESL superstars, the EV Boyz. Part of me wants to take these guys to a game, but I'm a little worried that they'd be they guys sprinting around the bases after the 6th inning.

Either way, the KBO has announced its roster for the WBC. The only real surprise is that Park Jin-man was left off. As recently as today, it was reporter that Park would be on the roster.



It's never a good sign when a shortstop is walking around with a massive ice bag on his shoulder, even if he is in high spirits. This pic was obviously taken before the roster was announced. Park had this to say...

"I was in really bad shape, so I felt heavy-hearted during team practice.''

To be fair, he's played on every incarnation of the Korean national team since 1998. That's over a decade of not having to worry about shortstop. My beloved White Sox should be so lucky.

National Team Schedule

The Olympic qualifying tournement will be held in Taichung, Taiwan. China, Cuba, the United States, the Netherlands and Japan have already qualified for the tournement.

The top three teams will qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in China.

Times are local.

3/7 at 12:30 PM
at South Africa

3/8 at 6:30 PM
vs. Austrailia

3/9 at 6:30 PM
vs. Mexico

3/10 at 12:30 PM
at Spain

3/12 at 12:30 PM
vs. Germany

3/13 at 6:30 PM
at Canada

3/14 at 6:30 PM
at Chinese Taipei(Taiwan)

# of days until exhibition games begin: 16
# of days until Opening Day: 32