World Baseball Classic: Australia 8, South Korea 7
Late three-run home runs by a pair of relative unknowns lifted underdog Australia to an 8-7 victory over South Korea Thursday in Tokyo.
The Aussies trailed 4-2 in the seventh inning when Kansas City Royals farmhand Robbie Glendinning lifted a fly ball into the left field seats at the Tokyo Dome.
One inning later, with Australia holding its 5-4 lead, catcher Robbie Perkins (who plays in Australia) replicated Glendinning’s shot of one inning earlier. That stretched the Aussie advantage to 8-4, and enabled them to survive South Korea’s three-run rally in the bottom half of the same inning.
That gave Australia an edge in what turned out to be a battle of three-run home runs. Catcher Euiji Yang hit one for Korea in the fifth inning to give his team a temporary 3-2 advantage. Yang also singled in the losing cause.
The outcome was surprising because the Koreans fielded a lineup that would be more familiar to Major League fans. It included St. Louis Cardinals infielder Tommy Edman, San Diego Padres infielder Ha-Seong im, former Minnesota Twins hitter ByongHo Park, and former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim.
The only recent major leaguer in the Australia lineup was Phillies outfield prospect Aaron Whitefield.