By Korea’s national baseball team has advanced to the World Baseball Classic finals with a convincing win over Venezuela:
The national baseball team has advanced to its first World Baseball Classic final in convincing fashion.
Korea crushed Venezuela 10-2 in Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles Saturday evening in front of more than 43,000 fans. This sets up a showdown in the final Tuesday morning Korean Standard Time against the winner of the U.S.-Japan semifinal Monday morning (KST).
With Korea off to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, Choo Shin-soo expanded the advantage with a three-run homer.
Venezuela also committed five costly errors in the game, including two in the first, matching its total for the entire tournament.
Right-hander Yoon Suk-min was the winner for Korea on the mound, giving up seven hits and two runs over six and a third innings. The losing pitcher was Carlos Silva, who gave up six earned runs and two homers in just one and a third innings.
Cleanup hitter Kim Tae-kyun had the other homer for Korea, a two-run shot in the second, and scored three runs.
Korea added another run in the fourth and two more in the sixth. [KBS Global]
Next up for the Korean team is either Japan or the United States who face off tomorrow for the right to play Korea in the finals.
2:21 am on March 22nd, 2009 1
the NYTimes take on this game is a must-read: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/sports/baseball… Not sure I ever read "swagger" that many times in one article before.
3:58 am on March 22nd, 2009 2
Danb thanks for the article link. I like how the South Korean team has been playing as well and they do have a swagger going now. But whoever they play in the final will be even stiffer competition then what they faced against Venezuela. It should be a great game though no matter who they face.
6:02 pm on March 22nd, 2009 3
Well Japan beat US, so looks like it'll be Korea vs Japan…
Going to be an INSANE party going on over this one…..
9:01 pm on March 22nd, 2009 4
If the U.S. had to play Korea and Korea won, we Americans here in Korea would be forced to watch reruns of that game 12 times a day for 10 years, of course if the U.S. won the allegations of cheating would cause the reruns to be played in slow motion.
I guess I'm not happy we lost to Japan, just relieved.
Good Luck Korea!