Olympic Preliminaries, Monday, Aug 18

Korea 1, China 0 (Sunday, Aug. 17)
Korea remains unbeaten behind six innings of shutout baseball from Seungjun Song. Song struck out nine and walked only one but did not qualify for the win, as Chinese starter Chenhao Li kept stride through 5 1/3, allowing three hits and one walk. This game was goose eggs until the eleventh inning, when Seungyuop Lee singled home Jongwook Lee with the winning run. Taking the broad view, China must be happy with their Olympic performance—despite their 1-4 record, they’ve absolutely been in every game they’ve played (which is more than can be said for the Dutch). Korea, seeking to avenge basically getting screwed out of a shot at the World Baseball Classic championship, is playing like a team on a mission. Boxscore.


Japan 1, Canada 0
Another great pitcher’s duel, this time between Japan’s Yoshihisa Naruse and Canada’s ace, Chris Begg. Yoshihisa pitched seven innings of two-hit ball, striking out ten. Begg went 5 1/3, allowing four hits, one run, and striking out five. His lone mistake was a fifth-inning solo home run to right fielder Atsunori Inaba. Japanese closer Koji Uehara seems to have found his stride in Beijing; he picks up his second save of the tournament. Boxscore.


Korea 9, Chinese Taipei 8
After being held to only one run on Sunday, Korea exploded in the first inning of this game, lighting up starter Chien-Fu Yang for seven runs (four earned) on the strength of a three-run jack from second baseman Youngmin Ko. To their credit, Taiwan clawed their way back and actually tied the game in the sixth on a bases-loaded double from Cheng-Min Peng. But in the seventh, Korean Daeho Lee walked and was replaced by pinch-runner Yongkyu Lee. Lee was then thrown out trying to advance to third on a single by Jinyoung Lee, who advanced to second on the throw. But Minho Kang then singled, scoring Lee, and giving Korea their fifth win in as many games. Fu-Te Ni takes the loss for Taiwan; Kijoo Han earns the sloppy win for Korea. Boxscore.


Cuba 14, Netherlands 3
Ugh. Couldn’t see this one coming, could you? Kind’ve reminds me the old ice hockey game from NES, when we used to create a team of thugs and then pit them against a team we created entirely of skinny speedster guys. The thugs of course would run the skinny guys into the boards or send them cart wheeling across the ice over and over again, and the score was always something like 22-zip. That’s more or less what happened here; incredibly, Cuba does it all without a single homerun. Alexei Belle goes 4-for-5 with two runs, three RBI and a triple, while Alfredo Despaigne goes 3-for-5 with a run, three RBI and a triple of his own. Maybe the Dutch were just scared out of their minds: Cuba hit four different Dutch batters with a pitch. If the Cubans are the bullies of these Olympic Games, the Netherlands are kind’ve like the kid who eventually decides he’d rather stay inside during recess and help the teacher “organize.” Boxscore.


United States 9, China 1
Like the Cuba/Netherlands game, clearly someone forgot to tell the victors that there is no BCS poll in the Olympics—you don’t have to keep piling on when it’s clear you’re going to win. China tried to take a page from Cuba’s playbook: five different US batters were hit by pitches. It didn’t do any good. In fact, it probably just made them mad. No homers from the American team, but Nate “How can I possibly not be starting for San Francisco by now?” Schierholtz went 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI; Terry Tiffee continues to mash (2-for-4, one run, one RBI, and a double). US starter Jake Arrieta struck out seven and walked two in six innings of work; the only run for China came on a solo shot by the Joseph-Helleresque backup catcher, Yang Yang. Boxscore.