“I’ll go until I go.”
Ryu Jung-il, the head coach of the Korean Baseball Organization, expects a long inning from left-hander Lee Yi-ri (22-KIA), who will start against Japan. With a game against Chinese Taipei the next day (Aug. 18), Lee will need to keep the bullpen from being depleted.
South Korea will start Lee against Japan in the second game of the 2023 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) qualifiers at 7 p.m. on Sunday at the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
When asked by the media before the game about Lee’s planned pitch count and innings, head coach Ryu Jung-il said, “I’ll go as long as I have to,” adding, “We have to win against Taiwan tomorrow. We used the bullpen a lot yesterday (Nov. 16), and we need to prepare for tomorrow’s game against Taiwan, so I want Lee to throw as long as possible. If Lee is not good, we can use other starters.”
In the previous game against Australia
Moon Dong-ju bounced back with two runs on 102 pitches in 5⅔ innings, but the bats never really got going, forcing a 10th inning extra inning. In the process, the team used five relievers: Kim Young-gyu (8 pitches in ⅔ innings), Shin Min-hyuk (13 pitches in 0 innings), Choi Ji-min (14 pitches in ⅔ innings), 온라인카지노 Choi Seung-yong (33 pitches in 1⅔ innings), and Jung Hae-young (11 pitches in 1⅓ innings).
With the tournament taking place over four consecutive days from June 16-19, four starting pitchers is more than enough. There is a lot of pressure to use bullpen resources in a short period of time, so starting pitchers need to be able to go as long as possible.
The tournament is a four-nation pool league with the top two teams from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia advancing to the finals. Japan is the favorite to reach the final, while Korea needs to take down Australia and Chinese Taipei to improve their chances of making the final. There will be a certain amount of pick and choose strategy against Japan today. Lee will need to throw as long as possible to increase his chances against Taiwan.
Chinese Taipei won 6-0 in 10 extra innings against Australia at 12 p.m. today.
They were scoreless through nine innings, but Lin Jing-kai hit a six-run homer in the 10th inning to win the game. They lost 0-4 to Japan on Saturday, but improved to 1-1 with a win over Australia to keep their finals hopes alive. South Korea and Chinese Taipei face off at 7 p.m. on the 18th.
Meanwhile, Lee is making his third appearance for the national team. As a 19-year-old rookie at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Lee pitched five innings in the first round against the Dominican Republic (five innings, four hits, one run, two walks, nine strikeouts) and five innings in the semifinals against the United States (five innings, five hits, one run, two walks, nine strikeouts, two runs). In 10 innings, he struck out 18 batters.
However, his time at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March ended with a one-game appearance as South Korea was eliminated early. He was pulled in the seventh inning of a preliminary round game against Japan after struggling with his pitches, allowing one run on three hits while striking out one. He struggled to adjust to the slippery nature of the Major League Baseball’s official ball, the Rollins. Although the results were not good, he drew attention in the Japan game by throwing a 155-kilometer fastball, the fastest of any Korean pitcher.