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Former major leaguer Jung-keun Bong was one half
of an excellent pitching duel today
(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)
Although both teams knew they'd be advancing to the second round, you'd be hard-pressed to tell Team Japan or Team Korea that tonight's game didn't matter.
These two teams are perennial rivals, and certainly the top two teams in Asia, and have already met once in the WBC.
Japan beat Korea soundly in their first WBC 09 meeting, invoking the mercy rule in a 14-2 washout, and Korea was looking for revenge.
Japan wanted to show the rest of the field that the game wasn't a fluke, particularly since they'd struggled with the relatively weak Chinese team, winning only 4-0.
Plus, the loser will likely face off against Cuba, while the winner will play the runner-up in Cuba's Group B, which will probably be Australia.
And so nobody expected either team to lie down, and the pitching was fierce early, with both starters looking sharp as they marched through the opponent's batting order.
Korea finally broke through in the fourth, then held the lead through inning after agonizing inning, as each team created scoring opportunities, but failed to capitalize on them.
In the end, Korea held on to win, looking solid against Team Japan and earning the right to sidestep Cuba in the next round.
Starting Lineups:
Korea
- Jong-wook Lee CF
- Keun-woo Jeong 2B
- Hyun-soo Kim LF
- Tae-kyun Kim 1B
- Dae-Ho Lee DH
- Yong-kyu Lee RF
- Bum-ho Lee 3B
- Kyung-wan Park C
- Ki-hyuk Park SS
- Jung-keun Bong SP
Japan
- Ichiro Suzuki RF
- Hiroyuki Nakajima SS
- Norichika Aoki LF
- Shuichi Murata 3B
- Atsunori Inaba DH
- Seiichi Uchikawa 1B
- Kosuke Fukudome CF
- Kenji Johjima C
- Akinori Iwamura 2B
- Hisashi Iwakuma SP
The big surprise would be the absence of Shin-soo Choo from Team Korea, unless you realize that Choo is only .143 in the WBC. Team Korea manager In-sik Kim likely wants to give him the night off to get his stroke together; or he's concerned about Choo's elbow—or both.
That put Dae-ho "Big Boy" Lee back in the lineup—though at DH where he belongs—along with Yong-kyu Lee for Jin-young Lee in right field, even though Jin-young has been hitting quite well in the WBC (.375, 1 HR, 5 RBI in 8 AB).
Team Japan has Inaba back at DH, instead of Michihiro Ogasawara, who'd hit in that spot during Japan's blowout win.
But the clear highlight of both rosters is the pitching matchup. Jung-keun Bong pitched for several years in the Braves and Reds organization before returning to the Korean major leagues to become one of its best pitchers.
And Japan's Iwakuma is a great pitcher for a perennially bad team, which didn't prevent him from taking home the Sawamura Award, Japan's equivalent of the Cy Young (except they only give one in Japan, instead of awarding one to the best pitcher in each league).
GAME RECAP:
Top 1st: Iwakuma got Jong-wook Lee to tap an easy grounder to Aki Iwamura on the second pitch for the first out, then fanned Keun-woo Jeong on three straight pitches. Hyun-soo Kim fouled several pitches off, but he still succumbed to Iwakuma by strikeout. Korea 0, Japan 0.
Bottom 1st: With Ichiro Suzuki at the plate, Bong stopped in mid-delivery on the first pitch, possibly because of the glittering flash of cameras that come out with Team Japan's famous leadoff hitter at the dish. After Bong finally delivered his second pitch, Ichiro rapped out sharply to Keon-woo Jeong at 2B for the first out.
Hiroyuki Nakajima stroked a topspin liner to center, where Jong-wook Lee broke back, then in, to make a sliding grab. Norichika Aoki grounded to first, and Tae-kyun Kim scooped it up nicely, feeding Bong as he raced to the bag for the final out of the inning. Team Japan also went down, 1-2-3. Korea 0, Japan 0.
Top 2nd: Tae-kyun Kim filled the count before Iwakuma got him to ground out to short, while Dae-ho Lee only took two pitches to ground out to third. Yong-kyu Lee, in his first WBC at-bat, nearly stroked a single into the hole between short and third on the first pitch he saw. But Shuichi Murata laid out, speared the grounder, and threw him out to retire the side. Korea 0, Japan 0.
Bottom 2nd: Murata would lead off the next inning, quickly got into a 1-2 hole and struck out; the pitch got away from Kyung-wan Park, who chased it down and threw him out. Bong lost control of his first pitch to Atsunori Inaba, who ducked away but got a strike called anyway when his bat unintentionally hit the wild pitch. Bong calmed down enough to mow Inaba down with two more strikes for the second out of the inning.
Uchikawa actually got a decent rip at Bong's fourth pitch to send the ball to deep right field, but it fell short of a homer for the third out. Korea 0, Japan 0.
Top 3rd: The game sped along as Bum-ho Lee grounded out to second, Kyung-wan Park broke his bat on a soft pop fly to first, and Ki-hyuk Park worked the count full before striking out for the third out. Korea 0, Japan 0.
Bottom 3rd: Kosuke Fukudome hasn't had a great WBC so far—he's just 1-4—though he's collected his share of walks. He put a charge into one, pushing left fielder Hyun-soo Kim to the wall, where he made a nice play for the inning's first out.
The last two batters hit Bong pretty hard, however, and Kenji Johjima finally broke through to collect the first hit for either team. He was quickly erased when Aki Iwamura grounded the ball to second, but Aki's too quick for Korea to turn the double play, so Ichiro came to the plate with Aki on first. But Ichiro grounded to first and couldn't outrun Bong to the bag. Korea 0, Japan 0.
Top 4th: Korea started over at the top of their lineup, and Jong-wook Lee took a fast walk from Iwakuma, on five pitches. Keun-woo Jeong collected Korea's first hit of the night with a soft liner to short center, putting runners on first and second with none out for Hyun-soo Kim.
Kim struck out, however, for the second time tonight, foul tipping the ball into Johjima's glove. Tae-Kyun Kim, who leads Team Korea in RBI, smoked one down the third-base line, scoring Jong-wook Lee—Jeong was nailed by Aoki trying to go from first to third, however. Korea 1, Japan 0.
With two outs and one on, Big Boy Lee walked to bring Yong-kyu Lee to the dish. But Tae-Kyn Kim took too long a secondary lead on Iwakuma's first pitch, and Johjima picked him off of second, something you don't see very often, to close out the frame. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Bottom 4th: Nakajima, perhaps knowing that it was time for Team Japan to respond, lined a ball to the gap between left and center. Jong-wook Lee cut the ball off before Nakajima could get to second, but the leadoff man was on for Aoki.
Bong balked Lee to second, putting a runner in scoring position, and Aoki grounded the ball to first, moving Nakajima to third with one out. But Bong recovered to get Murata to foul out to first base, so that Inaba would have to get a clean single to score Nakajima. Bong got him to tap back to the mound, and escaped unscathed. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Top 5th: Yong-kyu Lee would return to the plate, this time with the bases empty, and Iwakuma would issue his third walk of the night. Bum-ho Lee struck out without advancing the runner, and Kyung-wan Park popped up to short on an attempted steal by Lee, leading to a double play when Lee is doubled off. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Bottom 5th: Seiichi Uchikawa took Bum-ho Lee well into the hole, and Lee spun around and nailed Uchikawa at first on a very tough play. Kosuke Fukudome went the other way, but the ball hung up well enough for Hyun-soo Kim to collect. With two out, Johjima golfed a ball just foul down the left-field line, then ripped a 3-2 pitch towards short, and it bounded over the infield for a single. Aki Iwamura grounded out to second to end the threat. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Top 6th: Ki-hyuk Park would lead off the inning, representing the final batter Iwakuma would face, with the WBC pitch-count rules, and Park grounded out to short. Tatsunori Hara brought in Toshiya Sugiuchi to face Jong-wook Lee, and the lefty induced a groundout to short from Jong-wook Lee before striking out Keun-woo Jeong. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Bottom 6th: Young-min Ko entered the game to play second base for Keun-woo Jeong as In-sik Kim looked to nail down his lead.
Ichiro Suzuki seemed to have fallen back into a slump, as he grounded out for the third time tonight, this time to Bong, who was lifted for Hyun-wook Jong. Jong fanned Nakajima on a gnarly curve ball, and Nakajima went back to the bench, telling everyone he could find about how crazy the pitch was.
Aoki poked a single through the infield, perhaps heeding Nakajima's advice about Jong, bringing up Murata, who flied out to left center for the third out. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Top 7th: Hyun-soo Kim walked to lead off the inning, bringing Hara out from the dugout to bring in Takahiro Mahara, one of Team Japan's closers, clearly wanting to keep the game from getting out of hand.
Facing Tae-kyun Kim, Mahara gave up a double to Korea's most productive hitter, moving Hyun-soo Kim to third. Hyun-soo Kim appeared to strain a hamstring, but he waved off the medical staff and stayed in the game.
Dae-ho Lee rapped a grounder to short and Nakajima, playing in, cut down the runner at home. Tae-kyun Kim, for some reason, delayed his advance to third and was thrown out by Johjima for a double play. Yong-kyu Lee got great wood on Mahara's second offering, but it was an at-em ball straight to Fukudome, and Team Korea wasted an excellent opportunity to stretch their lead. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Bottom 7th: Inaba fanned for the first out, and Miichihiro Ogasawara, pinch-hitting for Uchikawa, couldn't catch up to Jong's heater, either, and struck out on three straight pitches. Kosuke Fukudome ripped a hard shot to first base, but beat Jong to the base for an infield single.
Kenji Johjima, who had seen the ball well and hit it hard all night, couldn't deliver with the tying run on first, and flied out to right for the third out of the inning. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Top 8th: Bum-ho Lee faced Japan's new pitcher, none other than Yu Darvish, Japan's young ace, and fanned on three straight pitches. Kyun-wan Park also had trouble with Darvish, fouling him back one pitch and getting the benefit of the doubt on two check swings, before striking out, too. Ki-hyuk Park, one of Team Korea's weakest hitters, is inexplicably walked, bringing up the top of the order.
Jong-wook Lee followed the walk up by stroking a single to right, the first hit Darvish has given up in the WBC. Unfortunately for Korea, their next batter was Yeong-Min Ko, brought in for defensive purposes. Ko struck out on four pitches to end the frame and the scoring opportunity. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Bottom 8th: In-sik Kim brought in Hyun-Jin Ryu, a lefty starter, to begin the inning. Iwamura worked the count full, but struck out swinging.
Ichiro, 0-3 on the day, redeemed himself with a single up the middle and stood on first as the tying run. Ryu was lifted for Chang-yong Lim, "Mister Zero." Nakajima bunted Ichiro to second and bring Aoki to the dish; Aoki is a teammate of Lim's on the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, interestingly enough.
Aoki could only tap back to Mister Zero, who tossed to first for the final out of the eighth. Hara's choice to bunt Ichiro over seemed very strange in retrospect, as it's not the kind of move an American manager would make—most would let Nakjima swing away, perhaps with an eye towards moving Ichiro over by hitting the opposite way. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Top 9th: With Tetsuya Yamaguchi on the hill, Taek-Keun Lee was sent to pinch-hit for Hyun-soo Kim, which seemed an odd choice, since Kim has been a very hot hitter, but it's possible he was feeling the hamstring injury from the seventh inning.
But the result makes In-sik Kim look like a genius, since Lee drew a walk and the speedster stood on first with no out, leading Hara to make a pitching change to Kyuji Fujikawa, Japan's closer.
Tae-kyun Kim, sporting a hefty .455 average in the WBC, popped out to first, and Dae-ho Lee fought from 0-2 to 3-2 and drew a walk. In-sik Kim brought in Jung Choi as a pinch-runner for Lee.
With two runners on—one in scoring position—and one out, Yong-kyu Lee came to the plate. Though Fujikawa seemed to have control problems, Lee jumped on the second pitch and grounded it to first for a 3-6 double play. Once again, Korea had a chance to add to its lead and failed. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Bottom 9th: Last-chance time for Japan, and the heart of the lineup coming to the plate. Murata struck out on three straight pitches, Atsunori Inaba ripped Lim's first pitch hard, but it went right to Jong-wook Lee in center. Ogasawara broke his bat on a slow grounder to first, which Tae-kyun Kim scooped up and recorded the final out of the game. Korea 1, Japan 0.
Korea redeemed itself from its earlier 14-2 drubbing with tonight's game, earning the likely chance to avoid Cuba in the next round. Their pitching, defense and timely hitting all came together perfectly—Japan didn't look bad, but it missed the chances it had and went back to the quiet-bat team that struggled to beat China in the first WBC game.
Both teams now move on to San Diego for the next round, which picks up next Sunday, March 15. Keep reading the Asian-American Sports Examiner for coverage of those games, too!
Comments
Japan lost the game because the Japanese played to cautiously. I'll give an example. In the 8th with Ichiro their fastest runner on first, why didn't Hara have Ichiro steal second? Instead he wasted a bat sacrificing him to second on a bunt. Instead of having the golden opportunity of two chances to score Ichiro he was left with only one. Such decisions show the ineptness of Hara. In a one run game with only two innings to go one can't afford to be shy.
Both teams are good and have a decent change of moving to the semifinals provided their skippers makes bold decisions when it counts.
Not sure why Jin Young Lee was the only regular that didn't start, but in the end Korea got the big run they needed to edge out Japan.
Anyways, those base running errors by Korea cost them the opportunity to get more runs on the board. If they want to move onto the semi-finals, then the one area that they must resolve is their base running for many scoring opportunities will be hard to come by against Mexico, Cuba, and potentially Japan again.
Overall, team Korea did a solid job. They split against a formidable Japanese team and took care of business against Chinese Taipei and China. Overall they pitched well and played solid defense. On offense they were able to get those timely hits (and also showed some home run power as well). As long as they continue to play fundamentally sound on all phases of the game, team Korea should be able to make it to the semi-finals.
Eric--
You make an excellent point, since Korea's biggest blunders came on the basepath. I was shocked when Tae-kyun Kim got thrown out at third in the seventh inning, or got picked off second in the fourth inning.
I completely agree that Korea offers an excellent balance of power, speed, pitching and defense. The semis are certainly a reasonable expectation, if they don't go even farther.
Thanks for reading!
Dave--
The bunt in the eighth inning was incredibly silly; Ichiro is an amazing basestealer, and has one of the best stealing percentages in baseball history the past two seasons in MLB. Moving him to second with a bunt and hoping for a two-out hit was pure foolishness.
As Orestes Destrade (ESPN commentator) pointed out (as have many others) many times Japanese managers play not to lose, or not to embarrass themselves. That might be why he chose such an ultra-conservative play--bunting is a far safer play than stealing a base, and then it's on Aoki for not picking up Ichiro.
I don't know if this makes Hara inept; he managed his bullpen well and has put together a good, if unconventional, batting order.
Hara's also the manager for the Yomiuri Giants, and has led them to the Japan series twice in five seasons, winning once; the Giants have had the best record in the CL three of those seasons, including the last two.
That's a bit like citing the managerial record of Joe Torre with the Yankees, of course, since Hara has had some great players to work with, but the man's not a complete idiot.
Having said that, I totally agree that his move makes zero baseball sense, and blew Japan's last (if not best) chance to even the score.
I would love to read what the Japanese press are saying about him--they ought to be hanging him out to dry. (If you can tell me, please do!)
Thanks for reading, Dave, and thanks for your comment!
Japanese managers are for the most part ex-superstars and are managing not because of their ability but because of the earlier fame, thus their baseball sense is mediocre. Hara and Nagashima are examples. They have success because of the talent their club is able to buy for them and the fact that there are few teams in their league, but in situations such as this their lack of sense is apparent.
As far as the Japanese press is concerned I've not listened to much so am unable to comment, but I wouldn't be surprised if Ichiro himself has a comment to make about it after the series is over. He's being quiet now so as not to upset the team but I'm sure he's pretty mad about it. You could see it in his demeanor after the game.
Dave--
You make a good point about ex-superstars, as Hara certainly fits that bill. How do you rank Saduhara Oh, who would have managed the team? He's a superstar, and he did a good job in WBC '06. Always exceptions to every rule, I suppose.
Ichiro biting his tongue is just another example of the difference between Eastern and Western athletes. Had that been an American player, I think we would have heard some thinly veiled complaining (and it's likely American press would also be pressing American players to make such a comment).
It will be interesting to see what happens in a similar situation later in the WBC (if there is one), and how well Japan performs in the rest of the tourney. Hara's sure to take the fall if they underperform.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for reading!
Oh was a class act who really loved the game and did his best to promote Japanese baseball but most Giant superstars are still married to the team.
Nagashima, kicking his legs like a spoiled brat, said he wouldn't manage any other team and a number of Giant drafts came from unfair, shady deals outside of the draft system. Suguru Egawa comes to mind. Coming out of High School he said he wouldn't play for any other team but the Giants and he wouldn't join the team that drafted him but would sit the year out. The other teams not wanting to waste a draft choice refrained from selecting him and he got rewarded for his antics by getting his wish to play for the Giants.
Such players love "Giant fame" rather than the game of baseball. Nagashima still finds a way even today to rob the spotlight for himself. It's the egotistical stuff like that that make us "anchi kyojin" (anti-giant fans) hate the team.
The same kind of glory seeking pettiness can be seen by teams that deliberately walk foreign hitters just to protect the home run record held by a Japanese. It smacks of racism yes, but it's really more of a prideful thing. Teams that use that kind of tactics don't get my support and the Yomiuri Giants are at the top of the list.
Now that many of the premiere players are heading to the majors, Japanese baseball is taking a back seat. Some call it a minor league for the U.S., but the trend of the best players going to the "big buck" teams like the Yomiuri Giants seems to be repeated in the majors, Irabu and Matsui to the Yankees and Matsuzaka to the Red Socks.
Players who don't seem to be out for the money or the glory are more apt to gain my respect and loyalty as a fan.
Dave--
Great points about the Giants, which shows why people call them the New York Yankees of Japanese baseball. Yankee-haters have much the same reasons as you do for despising the New York pinstripers.
I agree that there's a risk of the NPB becoming a kind of super-minors for the major leagues. I think the only way to prevent that is to have an open draft among all MLB and NPB teams of all American and Japanese teams.
As long as both leagues have their hands-off policy, the weirdness of the posting system will prevail, and the NPB will lose their players (and their futures) in return for money.
That's a sad statement, although I'm sure franchises on either side of the Pacific would accept that kind of exchange.
I don't think that an international draft is going to happen anytime soon--in part because MLB would never allow the best American players to go elsewhere--but I think it's where we're heading.
Thanks for your excellent commentary!
Michael,
Just watched the USA/Puerto Rico game. Unbelievable comeback sparked by Brian Roberts' gutsy steal which put the tying run on second forcing the pitching staff to adjust. Two walks and a single later and USA walks away with a walk off 6-5 win.
Would Hara have called for a steal in such a situation with the game on the line? NO! The difference in having the tying run in scoring position with just one out instead of two changes the dynamics of the game in favor of the hitting team. Hara will never understand risking it all on such a gusty steal. Way to go Davy Johnson!
Dave--
I saw that game, too, and couldn't agree more. Brian was safe by a whisker, but it made all the difference in the final score. Davy rolled the dice and came up a winner; if he'd failed, nobody could have faulted him for trying.
I have to give a shout-out here to Team Korea manager In-sik Kim, who looks to me like the best manager in the WBC this year.
He made all the right moves tonight against Japan, made some excellent calls, and put his players in the right position to win.
I don't know that Hara was horrible tonight--though I'd have put the veteran Abe in at catcher and not the younger Ishihara, who'd never been in the WBC.
But In-sik Kim was truly awesome, and showed (like Davy Johnson) what a smart and gutsy manager can do.
Thanks for reading, Dave, and thanks for your comments!
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