Asian Games S. Korea beats Japan for 5th consecutive baseball gold medal
South Korean baseball players celebrate after defeating Japan during the teams' baseball gold medal game at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Toyohashi, Sunday. Yonhap
TOYOHASHI, Japan — South Korea grabbed its fifth consecutive Asian Games gold medal in baseball on Sunday, with a 3-1 victory over the host country Japan.
Starter Gwak Been tossed 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, and the dormant offense woke up just in time on this rainy night at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Toyohashi, some 85 kilometers southeast of Nagoya.
With the score tied at 1-1 in the top of the eighth inning, Kim Do-yeong delivered the go-ahead RBI with an infield single before Moon Bo-gyeong drove in an insurance run with a single of his own.
Gwak struck out nine batters and scattered four hits in another strong outing. Relievers Jo Byeong-hyeon and Park Yeong-hyun then slammed the door shut for the narrow win.
South Korea avenged a 5-0 loss to Japan in the Super Round on Friday, when it managed just four hits across seven innings against Shin Higuchi.
Higuchi started this game again on just one day's rest, and South Korea put some pressure on him early, with a walk and a single putting two men on for the heart of the order in the top of the first inning.
However, cleanup Moon Bo-gyeong struck out swinging, before cleanup Roh Si-hwan was robbed of an extra-base hit when right fielder Shohei Mizutani caught a towering fly right at the fence.
But South Korea solved Higuchi in the top second. After Yoon Dong-hee led off with a double, Moon Hyun-bin, who had gone 2-for-17 before Sunday, cashed him in with a single to center for a 1-0 lead.
South Korea then caught a lucky break to keep the rally going, though it failed to capitalize on it.
Kim Ji-chan put down a bunt to advance Moon, and after fielding the ball, Higuchi chose to go to second to get the lead runner.
Moon was called safe, but replays showed he was tagged before his feet reached the bag. There was no replay review in this tournament.
A sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk loaded the bases for South Korea, but Park Jun-soon struck out for the second straight at-bat and Kim Do-yeong flied out to left.
Kim Do-yeong of South Korea celebrates after hitting a go-ahead single against Japan during the teams' baseball gold medal game at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Toyohashi, Japan, Sunday. Yonhap
South Korea kept creating traffic on the base but could not add to its lead after the first two batters of the third inning reached.
While the South Korean offense continued to be silenced, starter Gwak Been held Japan without a hit through the first four innings and pitched around a leadoff double in the fifth.
South Korea had the bases loaded with two outs in the top seventh, but Moon Hyun-bin popped out to left to end that rally.
South Korea then paid the price for those missed opportunities.
Japan hit two singles off Gwak in the bottom seventh, and Yuki Sato singled through the hole on the left to drive in the tying run.
The hit knocked Gwak out of the game, and reliever Jo Byeong-hyeon put out the fire by striking out the next two batters.
South Korea punched right back and reclaimed its lead with a two-run eighth
After a double, a sacrifice bunt and a walk put runners at the corners, Kim Do-yeong smoked a hard grounder right at third baseman Yuki Sato for a tiebreaking infield single.
Moon Bo-gyeong then poked a single up the middle to bring home another run for a 3-1 lead.
South Korea escaped a one-out, two-on jam in the bottom eighth, with new pitcher Park Yeong-hyun striking out cleanup Ryosuke Aizawa and getting Yukiya Yano to fly out to left.
Park walked the tightrope in the bottom eighth, giving up a walk and a single after retiring the first two batters. It brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of pinch hitter Masato Shibasaki, but Park struck him out looking on a 0-2 fastball to clinch the gold medal for South Korea.