Kim Do-yeong of Korea hits a two-run home run against Chinese Taipei during the teams' Pool C game at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Sunday. Yonhap
Save for one player's heroics, Korean bats were kept in check in a 5-4 loss to Chinese Taipei in extra innings at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Sunday.
Leadoff man Kim Do-yeong accounted for half of Korea's two hits in the loss, which pushed Korea to the brink of elimination from knockout contention for the fourth consecutive WBC.
Korea managed just one hit off starter Gu Lin Ruei-Yang through four innings and didn't even make him work that hard, either. The right-hander needed only 46 pitches to get his 12 outs, while his counterpart, Ryu Hyun-jin, threw 50 pitches over three innings.
Korea finally put a man in scoring position against Gu Lin in the top fifth, when Ahn Hyun-min worked a leadoff walk and Moon Bo-gyeong singled to put runners at the corners
With Shay Whitcomb coming to the plate, Gu Lin was pulled for lefty Lin Wei-En, who induced a double play ball that brought in the tying run.
Then with Korea down 2-1 in the bottom sixth, Kim Do-yeong launched a two-run home run to flip the lead to 3-2 in his team's favor. It was just Korea's third hit of the game.
The team's fourth and final hit also came off Kim's bat in the bottom eighth, a double to deep center that tied the score at 4-4.
Korean players acknowledge their fans after losing to Chinese Taipei 5-4 in the teams' Pool C game at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Sunday. Yonhap
Korea wasted chances to emerge victorious from this seesaw affair. But Kim Ju-won hit a flyout with a winning run standing at second with two outs in the bottom ninth. Then after Chinese Taipei broke the deadlock with a run in the top 10th, Korea had a tying run at second with two outs in the bottom 10th, and Kim Do-yeong came to bat.
Source: Korea Times News
