China’s baseball team defeated Hong Kong 10-0 in eight innings in a cold opener in Group B of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Sports Center on Monday near Hangzhou, China. After a frustrating offensive struggle throughout the game, Korea responded with a big inning in the eighth.
The team opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when Choi Ji-hoon singled and Noh Si-hwan walked to put runners on second and third. In the fourth inning, Kim Hye-sung doubled down the right field line with the bases loaded to score two more runs.
The team had chances in every other inning, but couldn’t capitalize. They were limited by Hong Kong’s pitchers, who are very different from KBO pitchers. The fastball was clocked at around 120 kilometers per hour and the slowball was less than 100 kilometers per hour. There was a string of singles, and a few untimely swinging strikes.
Baek-ho Kang, batting fourth, struck out in the first inning with runners on first and second, and in the fourth inning with runners on second and third. He struck out three times in the game until the top of the seventh inning. In the third inning, a well-hit ball was blocked by a diving catch in right field. In the bottom of the sixth, with runners on first and second, Choi Ji-hoon grounded out to second and Noh Si-hwan struck out to end the inning.
The ‘big inning’ thirst was quenched in the eighth inning. Noh Si-hwan led off with a single, followed by Moon Bo-kyung’s bunt single, Yoon Dong-hee’s RBI double, an error, and Park Sung-hwan’s sacrifice fly to score six runs. After the batting order rotated, Kim Hye-sung came back to the plate and lined a single up the middle to put runners on second and third, scoring the 10th run of the game and sealing the win for Cold Game. The cold game applies to score differentials of 15 runs or more after the fifth inning and 10 runs or more after the seventh inning.
The game was chaotic. In the third inning, the game was halted for nearly 20 minutes due to umpiring issues.
In the bottom of the third, the Koreans had runners on first and second with no outs after a leadoff bunt by Choi Ji-hoon and a walk by Noh Si-hwan. Kang Baek-ho hit a hard line drive to right field, but the Hong Kong right fielder threw and caught it.
This is where things got weird. Noh Si-hwan, the first baseman, sprinted past Choi Ji-hoon, the second baseman, without seeing the pitch. According to the rules, Noh is automatically out.
At almost the same time as Choi Ji-hoon stepped on the second base, the ball thrown by the Hong Kong Beast reached second base. The umpire called a force out at second base. Choi Ji-hoon made it home with too much time to spare, and Hong Kong’s replay was cleaner than expected.
With the umpire’s call of a force out at second base, there should have been a triple play here. Kang Baek-ho grounded out, Noh Si-hwan was thrown out at second base, and Choi Ji-hoon was thrown out at third base on a late throw.
However, the umpires heard the protests of the national team’s first base coach Lee Jong-yeol and called the Hong Kong beasts, who were already in the dugout, back to the field. The already chaotic situation became even more confusing. The umpires sent Choi Ji-hoon, who was on second base, to first base. The umpires called Choi Ji-hoon back to first base after he was already out. The benches of both teams came out to protest the incomprehensible call.
After about 20 minutes, the situation was cleared up. Choi Ji-hoon was out, Noh Si-hwan was safe, and the 메이저토토사이트 game resumed with runners on second and first. Moon Bo-kyung then struck out.
Our guess is that the umpires didn’t see Noh pass the runner in front of him. Even if they did, it’s possible that they didn’t realize the rule that says you’re out for passing. Choi Ji-hoon was ordered to return to first base.