World Baseball Classic: Korea 22, China 2
In a game played with nothing but pride at stake, Korea took out its tournament frustrations on the outmanned Chinese in Tokyo. The game was halted after five innings by the mercy rule.
The Koreans, whose tournament hopes were undermined by early losses to Japan and Australia, took out all their frustrations on a half-dozen China pitchers, none of whom escaped unscathed. In fact, Korea scored at least twice in each of the abbreviated game’s five innings, running up 20 hits overall and supplementing that with 10 bases on balls.
The offensive stars for Korea were almost too numerous to mention. Let’s begin with outfielder Kenwoo Park, whose three hits included a grand slam that highlighted a six-run fourth. Park had five RBI for the afternoon.
Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim matched Park’s grand slam with one of his own in the fifth. Hae-Min Park, Baekho Kang and Ji Young Lee each enjoyed three-hit games.
While Korea’s batters enjoyed their glorified workout, the pitchers contributed too. Three Korean arms held China to four hits, the only two Chinese runs coming off starter Tae-in Won in the first. Jie Cao got credit for those two runs, sending both across with a bases-loaded single that tied the game at 2-2.
Korea would score the game’s next 20 runs.