The World Baseball Classic (WBC) Korean national team captain Kim Hyun-soo (35) and catcher Yang Eui-ji made a fatal mistake.

Kim Hyun-soo started as left fielder No. 8 in the 2023 WBC Round 1 Group B match against the Czech Republic held at Tokyo Dome, Japan on the 12th and recorded 1 hit, 1 RBI, and 1 walk in 2 at-bats. South Korea won 7-3, their first victory in the tournament.

Even in the first victory, Kim Hyun-soo could not smile. This is because he made a fatal error that led to a run in the 7th inning. Jung Cheol-won, who took the mound in place of Gwak Bin in the 7th inning, with Korea leading 6-0, was hit by Martin Chervenka in the left field.

Left fielder Kim Hyeon-soo rushed to catch the ball and chose a diving catch instead of safely handling the ball. However, Kim Hyun-soo failed to catch the batted ball, and while the batted ball flowed backward, both the runners on first and second base went all the way home, and the batter runner succeeded in advancing to second base.

This hit was recorded as Chervenka’s double, not Kim Hyun-soo’s mistake. However, Kim Hyun-soo’s batted ball judgment was disappointing. Coach Kang-Cheol Lee immediately replaced Hyeon-Soo Kim with Ji-Hoon Choi to strengthen the defense.

However, the national team gave up one more run in the 8th inning. As Lee Yong-chan’s wild fight came out in the 2nd company’s full base, he dedicated one more point in vain. It was regrettable that catcher Yang Eui-ji missed the catcher’s foul fly hit prior to this wild throw and failed to catch it. If Yang Eui-ji had caught the foul ball, the inning could have ended, but he lost the ball and could not catch it, and in the subsequent at-bat, a wild throw that led to a run came out. 메이저사이트

As a result, the play of Kim Hyun-soo and Yang Eui-ji did not have a big impact on the win or loss of the game that day. This is because the Korean line-up scored 5 points from the first inning and actually seized the victory. However, in Korea, winning or losing is not the important situation right now. This is because a red flag was turned on to advance to the quarterfinals after losing in matches against Australia and Japan.

It is now impossible for Korea to advance to the quarterfinals on its own. The only scenario for Korea, which recorded 1 win and 2 losses, is to advance to the quarterfinals by winning the game against China and tying with Australia and the Czech Republic with 2 wins and 2 losses and then considering the minimum run rate. In this case, it was important to minimize the number of points lost in the game because Korea scored a whopping 21 points in the matches against Australia and Japan. However, the run rate (.444) fell behind Australia (.333) and the Czech Republic (.292) by giving points that should not have been given due to misleading play by Kim Hyeon-soo and Yang Eui-ji.