South Korea's baseball team bounced back from a tough opening day loss to Cuba with an offensive performance from Kim Do-young (KIA Tigers).
South Korea defeated Cuba 8-4 in the second game of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier12 2024 Group B on Thursday at Tianmu Stadium in Taipei, Taiwan.
Kim, who was named a “player to watch” by the U.S. and Taiwanese media before the tournament began, was a key contributor to the victory, going 3-for-4 with five RBIs, including a grand slam in the second inning and a solo shot in the seventh.
Kim also made several strong defensive plays at third base against Cuban hitters.
South Korea, which lost its opening game against Chinese Taipei 3-6 the day before, registered its first win of the tournament in the second game to revive its hopes of reaching the quarterfinals.
While the top two teams from the six nations in Group B still have a long way to go to secure a spot in the quarterfinals, a win against Japan in a fateful showdown at the Taipei Dome on Friday at 7 p.m. could widen the path to the final four again.
South Korea took down “Cuban ace” Rivan Moinello (SoftBank Hosk) early in the game.
With the score tied 0-0 in the bottom of the second inning, Moon Bo-kyung (LG Twins) opened the inning with a double to left-center field, and Park Sung-seong (SSG Landers) followed with a single to left to put runners on first and third.
Choi Won-joon (KIA) followed with a hard-hit single down the shortstop's side to give Korea a valuable lead.
Moinello gave up a walk to Hong Chang-ki (LG) to load the bases, 메이저사이트 and then gave up another walk to Shin Min-jae (LG) to load the bases.
With the bases loaded, Kim Do-young stepped to the plate.
Kim crushed a first-pitch fastball from Moinello for a grand slam over the left-field wall.
Kim, the No. 1 KBO Most Valuable Player candidate in 2024, knocked out Moinello, who led the Nippon Professional Baseball Pacific League in ERA (1.88) this year.
Moinello took the loss after allowing six runs on four hits and three walks in two innings.
South Korean starter Kwak Bin Kwak (Doosan) pitched four innings of three-hit ball with no runs allowed and five strikeouts.
After Kwak Bi-bin struggled to record an out in the fifth inning and gave up two consecutive singles, Choi Min-joon (KT WIZ) came on in relief and got out of the inning without allowing a run.
Kim Do-young's great catch of Hean Walters' hard hit with runners on first and second in the fifth inning
Kim was also a solid defender, making a flying catch of Yadir Drake's hit two batters later in the second inning, and then snagging Drake's ground ball with runners on first and second in the fourth.
South Korea made it 7-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning when Choi Won-joon (KIA) hit a single to right field to put runners on second and third after a walk and stolen base by Na Seung-yeop (Lotte Giants).
The top of the seventh inning was close.
Korea gave up an infield single to Andris Perez and back-to-back throwing errors by catcher Park Dong-won (LG) and first baseman Song Sung-moon (Kiwoom Heroes) left the bases loaded.
Lee Young-ha (Doosan) retired Roberto Baldokin on a fly ball to short right field, and Erisbel Aruevarena grounded out to short.
Alfredo Despaigne gave up a run on a misplayed infield hit, but he got Ariel Martinez to fly out to right field to end the top of the seventh without further damage.
In the bottom of the seventh, Kim unleashed another cool home run blast.
One out later, Kim took a Pavel Bruse's first pitch over the left field wall for a solo arch.
In the top of the eighth, Kim Taek-yeon (Doosan) did not record an out and gave up a two-run double to Joelkies Giebert and a solo home run to Rafael Vignales, but Jeong Jung-young (KIA) and Park Young-hyun (KT) pitched the final two innings to preserve Korea's victory.
South Korea is now 3-0 all-time against Cuba in the Premier12 after defeating them in the quarterfinals of the inaugural tournament in 2015 and the qualifiers for the second edition in 2019.