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What a close game, what great drama, and what a great story. Team Korea had defeated it's nemisis Japan for the second time in this tournament, both times on 8th inning rallies. Korea is still undefeated in WBC play. Their ERA is just over 1. They play great defense, the are disciplened and patient at the plate, and they execute every play.
The crowd is waving flags, chanting, chearing, and Korean flag has been planted on Angel Stadium pitchers mound. The energy and excitement of the fans are pouring through my radio.
This win has great implications for baseball. Korea has always been the little brother to Japan in Asian baseball. No matter what happens the rest of the tournament, they have now proven that they can play with anyone. In Asia, where nationalism is still an important part of regional politics, this win will likely somehow ripple through geopolitics, and I hope it will mean the continued growth of the game in the region. My bet is that Korea's performance in this tournament inspires China and Taiwan to continue building their program.
It goes without saying that this game also gives the U.S. a second shot at redemtion, after getting it handed to them by this same Korean team. There is clearly some irony to this, and I think the U.S. is going to come out hot with Clemens on the mound tomorrow. I'm hoping that the U.S. and Korea meet again soon, and that this time Dontrelle Williams either brings his A game or is on the bench.
I know most American's haven't followed this tournament closely, but it has been amazing. The atmosphere and energy surrounding these games (except for maybe the poorly attended U.S. games) has rivaled any play-off game. If you don't think so, then you haven't watched the games.
So far, the WBC has met and exceded my expectations, and I have to think that Major League Baseball is fired-up as well.
Tamura pops another foul out of play...the count is 0-2 and a runner is on 1st. 1 pitch away!
Seung Hwan Oh strikes out Imae. Korea is one out away from the semis, and the U.S. is one out away from playing for something tomorrow.
Oh my gosh, Tamura, the japanese batter just about hit one out...it tailed foul at the last second.
Oh man...this is TENSE!
Seung Hwan Oh first pitch is a 88mph fast ball. Korea has a great defense in the field.
Oh misses low, 2 balls 1 strike. Keep it down Oh my brotha, keep it down.
swing and a miss 2-2.
Seung Hwan Oh is Korea's new pitcher.
Dae-Sung Koo you idiot, you hung a fastball...luckily it went foul.
Dae-Sung Koo threw another fastball that Matsunaka hits to right field for a single. A pinch runner comes in and Korea is going to the bullpen.
Dae-Sung Koo had an 85-87 mph fastball. It was stupid to throw two of them on a 3-2 count. Korea and the U.S. lucky that Matsunaka only got a single with that.
Toshiya Imae, the third baseman that dropped the ball at third in the 8th, is up with 1 out and a man on first. The ball he dropped allowed the go ahead run to score on the next at bat. Imae has a great shot at redemtion here, but I'm looking for a 6-4-3 douple play. COME ON GROUND BALL!!!
Steiner claims that there are about 40,000 fans in attendance, most of whom are Korean and American. The crowd sounds loud and into it over my XM radio.
Matsunaka works the count to 2-2, stay outside Dae-Sung Koo!
foul ball, 3-2. STAY OUTSIDE AND AWAY!!
Matsunaka is the new Japanese hitter, he had 46 homers last year. Pitch outside Dae-Sung Koo!
The new batter is Kosuke Fukudome. Talk about some adrenline, I'm freakin out over here!!
2-2 count, the batter isn't Fukudome but rather a guy named something like Kenzhuo.
He grounds out to short. 1 out.
Shioshi Nishioko is the first Japanese batter. Kevin Kennedy predicts that he will go deep into the count.
Holy Cow, Nishioko, who only hit 4 homers all last season, just line a ball over the left field wall. Dang
Dang Dang.
Korea needs to get someone up in the pen now.
Korea is 3 outs away from beating Japan, Peter Gammon's pick to win the WBC, for the second time of the tournament, and thereby eliminating the Asian favorite.
Japan will bring up their 2-3-4 guys. Man, I just realized how glad I am that Hideki Matsui is not playing. What a great game this has been. Come on Dae-Sung Koo!
Lee flies out to center field. Even though Jim Yong Lee just popped out, he still gets props for throwing at the baserunner at home in the first inning. What a huge play that was.
Bum Ho Lee was pinch hit for. The pinch hitter grounded out to short to end the inning.
Getting back to this play-off atmosphere thing. I've really enjoyed following these WBC games, either on ESPN or XM radio. In every game that I've followed, the score has been close, the best players in the world have been giving it their all, passion for the game is flowing from the stands, and my adreline gets up and going.
Although the U.S. hasn't had much fan support, even their games have felt like they meant something.
Korea's first batter pops up.
Jim Jong Lee, the number five hitter in the Korean lineup, is at the plate.
I'm amazed at this atmosphere. It sounds like a play-off game to me.
Ichiro popped out to center.
Dae-Sung Koo had a carreer year in 1996. He had 18 wins and 1.00 ERA.
Koo has just become my new favorite situational reliever in the bigs.
Koo gets the batter Kawasaki to fly out in foul ground to third.
Ichiro takes the first pitch for a strike and is booed by the fans.
Satuzaki lines out to the second baseman Min Jae Kim.
Korea's team era coming into this game is 1.4!
B-Y Kim is out of the game after 1-2/3 in which he allowed only one walk. I hope this next guy can pitch.
Dae-Sung Koo is Korea's new southpaw hurler. He pitched with the mets last year. Japan's next two hitters are lefties.
That was a huge half inning for Korea and the U.S. As good as the Korean pitching has been, 2 runs ought to be more than enough to knock Japan out of the tournament.
But, Chan Ho Park closing the game has been a huge part of Korea's late inning pitching dominance, and Park's already out of this game.
Japan is bringing up 8-9-1.
Satuzaki is the batter, and he takes the first pitch for a strike.
Jong Beom Lee last season had 6 homers and 36 Rbi's; the Japanese outfield is in. If Lee doesn't get on here, look for the next batter Sung Yeop Lee to be walked.
Lee hits a double into right field, tries to run it out to third base, and is out. He gets the job done though, with two Rbi's. I like the aggressive baserunning. If Lee gets on third with 1 out, it's virtually an assured run. If he's out, he still the hero.
Sung Yeop Lee flies out to right on the first pitch, but the damage was done.
Jong Beom Lee takes 2 balls, and then fouls of the pitch for a 2-1 count.
Japan has the infield in...
Korea's number 2 man Jong Beom Lee, who hit .322 last season, is up at the plate. My boy Kevin Kennedy is talking squeeze play. I'm lovin it.
Bung Kyu Lee, the lead-off man hits the first pitch into center field. The baserunner Kim runs hard from first to third to beat a great throw. Steiner called the baserunner out, but the thirdbaseman bobbled the ball and the runner was called safe.
Squeeze play anyone?
Korea is a sac-fly or grounder on the first base side away from taking the lead.
Japan is going to the bullpen.
Min Jae Kim is facing a full count, and then walks on a low pitch.
AWESOME, a baserunner. Kome on Korea, play some small ball!
Charlie Steiner can't quit talking about how well both of these teams are positioning their defense for every batter. He claims like they are making difficult plays look easy.
Cho grounds out to third. One out for the Korean second baseman Min Jae Kim coming up to the plate. Kim is 0-2 on the game and 3-8 on the tournament. He takes a first pitch strike.
The Korean catcher In Sung Cho leads off the 8th for Korea. Korea only still has one hit on the game. I'd love to see a little action here.
As soon as I write that, Cho swings at a pitch in the dirt and then misses the second pitch. Cho does have the only Korean hit of the game, and he has picked off 54% of would be base stealers.
Kim strikes out his second batter to end the inning. Korea will bring up 8-9-1 in the last inning.
Tamura flied out to left.
B-Y Kim and Chan Ho Park have both pitched way above what big league fans are used to seeing from them. Good for the U.S.. It makes me wonder if these guys can carry this kind of productivity into the regular season.
Who would have ever thought that Kim would consistently be more dominant then Dontrelle Willis in this tournament?
Byun Hyung Kim struck out Imae, and is now facing Hitoshi Tamura. Kim is up nothing and 2.
This game is incredibly close. Japan's third baseman Toshiya Imae, who had a 22 game hitting streak last season is at the plate with 0 outs.
Some Korean hitter popped out in foul territory to end the inning, so Korea didn't score. Crap.
This is Korea's best chance of the game, Bum Ho Lee hit the ball a long way, but he flied out.
Something happend that i couldn't hear cause my mom has the propensity to talk to me at inopportune times, but the runner moved to second and Bum Ho Lee is up.
Kim works the count back to full, fouls off a pitch, and takes a high ball four.
Kim is Korea's first baserunner since the 2nd inning.
Jim Yong Lee is up, a lefty hitter; a pinch runner named Jae Gul Kim comes in at first.
Tae Kyun Kim comes on to pinch hit for Choi, he takes the first pitch strike.
Kim was brought in because he's a right handed hitter.
The count is 1-2. America still has a shot, but Korea needs to get on the board now.
Korea just dodged its second bullet of the game. Japan has 4 hits to Korea's one, and 2 more walks than Korea. Japan has definetely had more chances, but Sung Yeop Lee has been just short or foul of knocking 2 balls over the wall. Korea needs to get a man on base this right now.
Heep Sop Choi is up facing a new Japanese pitcher Suzuki.
Kenzho is spelled Kenjoh, sorry...I'm stuck on Chinese spellings.
Kenjoh is a switch hitter that had 87 RBI's last season, and he's up 3-0 and the big leaguer Kim.
He just walked, so men are on the corners for Japan's DH Nubuhiko Matsunaka.
Matsunaka drives the first pich on a short hop to the second baseman Kim who makes a tough play on the ball and retires the runner at first to end the inning.
Nishioka is up, and Kawasaki, the runner on second has fairly good speed.
Nishioka hits a slow roler to the short stop who back hands the ball and just beats the runner at first. 2 outs with a pinch hitter Kenzho up to bat. Korea goes to the bullpen, and Kenzho goes back to the bench to get his other helment.
Korea's new pitcher is the big leaguer Byung-Hyun Kim
Byung-Hyun Kim versus Kenzho with a runner in scoring position and 2 outs.
Chan Ho Park waked the number nine man to start off the 6th inning. Ichiro is up with no outs and a man on first.
He bunted Kawasaki over to second. One out and a man on second.
Sara Hart just called me, she saw Matthew Broddrick, Wesley Clark, and Hulk Hogan all in the same day. Unfortunately, I can't really hear what's going on.
Sung Yeop Lee flied out to deep right field to end the inning.
The leadoff man Bung Kyu Lee flies out to Right field on the first pitch, bringing up Jong Beom Lee.
Satuzaki flies out to deep center.
Going into the 6th inning, the score is tied at zero, both teams have a handful of hits, and both starting pitchers have 3 k's. I knew these two teams were evenly matched, but they are playing tit-for-tat baseball. If it comes down to either team making a mistake, you've got to think Korea can pull this game out. They've yet to commit an error in any World Baseball Classic game. Conversely, Japan committed a key error in the 9th that contributed to their loss to the U.S.
Korea is bringing up the top of the order in the 6th.
Satuzaki has a 3-2 count and has fouled off about 5 pitches...there's a pretty good pitcher-batter battle here.
Add one more foul tip.
!st baseman Ogasawara grounds out on the second pitch he sees.
Tomoya Satuzaki is up with 2 outs.
Steiner and Kennedy continue to talk about how different Chan Ho Park looks. He's doing a much better job of mixing up his speeds then Texas Ranger fans are used to.
Japan brings up 6-7-8, starting with Hitoshi Tamura, an outfielder.
Tamura is down 0-2, he grounds the pitch to short for a routine out.
Min Jae Kim swings at two 64 mph change ups for the first two strikes, takes three balls to work the count to full, and grounds out with a slow roller to short.
Japan's pitcher Watanabe has retired 10 in a row.
Both of these teams have consistent, deep pitching staffs. Japan already has a man up in the bullpen, and I'm betting that Watanabe is done. Neither of these teams are scared to go to the bullpen, but I'm looking for Chan Ho Park to get pretty close to the 80 pitch limit.
Charlie Steiner just brought up a good point for us to remember, these games can only go 14 innings.
Cho grounds out on a comebacker to the mound.
Chin Man Park leads off the inning for Korea, takes to strikes and then works the count back to even, fouls off a pitch, and Steiner talks about how this is a baseball purist dream game. What do you think about that Bardwell?
Chin Man Park strikes out looking. 1 down with In Sung Cho up at bat. Cho has Korea's only hit of the game.
Awesome, Imae grounds into a 4-3 double play to end the inning.
Korea's 7-8-9 are due up in the top of the fifth.
the new third baseman Toshiya Imae is up with a man on first and one out.
Matsunaka drops in a bloop single.
Fukudome just struck out for the second time, Chan Ho's third K
Nobuhiko Matsunaka is up for japan. he's down 0-2.
Cuba just beat Puerto Rico 4-3. Cuba has advanced to the semi's.
I liked the Puerto Ricans a lot too..dang
Kosuke Fukudome, the number 3 hitter, is up for Japan. He's down 0-2 with a couple of foul balls.
Choi fouls out in foul territory. Choi had a huge homer against the U.S. the other day, but other wise he's had a pretty quite tournament. He was benched for the first part of the US game, and actually got the homer as a pinch hitter. Consider this, the only big league hitter Korea has isn't playing up to par, and they are still undefeated.
Jim Yong Lee? and my boy Bum Ho Lee both flied out in the time it took me to write that sentence.
Not so good of a fourth inning for Korea.
The Chan Ho Park show is back on the mound.
Japan's second baseman Nishioka grounds out to short to end the inning.
Chan Ho park has 3 scorless innings, 2 K's, and about 37 pitches thrown.
Something I've realized that's really been able to help these Asian teams is their ability to foul off the ball. They are such consistent and patient contact hitters that they can foul of strikes they don't want and work for a better pitch. With a pitch count like the one used in the WBC, this has really been helping both of these teams.
Heep Sop Choi is up for the Koreans.
Chan Ho Park strikes out Ichiro.
Kennedy says this is the best Chan Ho Park has ever looked. He's keeping the ball low in the strike zone, something he hasn't been able to do very well in the bigs.
SS Munenori Kawasaki is up for Japan...he flies out to left field. Here comes the man, the myth, the legend: Ichiro.
On a completely unrelated note, Sara Hart saw Hulk Hogan in New York today. Aren't you jealous Kidder? I know I am.
Ichiro is sitting 1-2 with an out in the bottom of the third.
AAAHHHHH....Sung Yeop Lee grounds out on a 3-1 pitch to short. Lee is already 0-1 with a walk. Japan is not going to give him anything to hit. It's wierd to me that they'd rather pitch to Heep Sop Choi, the only big league batter on Korea's team, then throw to Sung Yeop Lee.
Looks to me like some scout picked the wrong Korean to come to the bigs.
Japans back up going 9-1-2.
Korea's number one man, Bung Kyu Lee and 2 man Jong Beom Lee both ground out.
My bo Sung Yeop Lee is up and ready to swing.
On the last play for Japan, the baserunner Iwamura pulled a leg muscle and Toshiya Inai has come in to play third. The loss could be bad for Japan, Iwamura was hitting in the high 400's for the tournament.
Sung Yeop Lee has a 3-1 count.
Women chu Han Guo means Let's go Korea in Chinese.
Say it with me.
Women Chu Han Guo
Women Chu Han Guo.
The new batter is Hitoshi Tamura, dripples a roller up third base. My boy Bum HoLee makes a great barehanded play and tough throw. I love this guy.
man on 2nd and one out.
the next batter pops up on the first pitch bringing up the catcher Tomoya Satozaki with two outs and a man in scoring position.
Satozaki lines a ball to right fielder Jim Yung Lee who guns the runner Tamura out a home. Great play from the outfield and way to keep Japan off of the scoreboard.
and third baseman Akenori Iwamura lines a first pitch single.
Man on first with no outs.