South Korea captured the gold medal and capped a perfect and improbable Olympic run with the country’s biggest win yet in international baseball, a 3-2 victory over defending champion Cuba last night in the championship of the Beijing Games.
Far from flashy and just plain steady all tournament long, the South Koreans (9-0) pulled off an impressive win over the mighty Cubans in what will long be remembered as an upset in baseball’s last Olympic hurrah for at least eight years.
Reliever Chong Tae-hyon got Yuliesky Gourriel to ground into a 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded to end it after a drama-filled ninth inning.
Cuba (7-2), the perennial world powerhouse and lone representative from baseball-crazed Latin America in the eight-team Olympic field, dropped only two games in China — both to the first-time gold medalists.
The other favorite going into the Olympics, Japan, lost 8-4 to the US earlier yesterday, giving the Americans the bronze.
South Korean reliever Chong Tae-hyon got Yuliesky Gourriel to ground into a 6-4-3 double play with the bases loaded to end it after a dramatic ninth inning.
Lee Seung-yuop gave his team the lead on a two-run homer in the first inning and Lee Yong-kyu added an RBI double in the seventh, helping South Korea become the first unbeaten Olympic baseball champion since Cuba in 1992 and 1996.
The Cubans loaded the bases in the ninth against South Korea starter Ryu Hyun-jin, who allowed Hector Olivera’s leadoff single and walked Fredrich Cepeda one out later. Alexei Bell drew a walk and South Korean catcher Kang Min-ho vehemently argued the call before being ejected by home plate umpire Carlos Rey Cotto of Puerto Rico. Kang angrily threw his mask, a ball and then his glove into the dugout.
South Korea skipper Kim Kyung-moon then sent Chong to the mound to face Gourriel, who chopped an 0-2 pitch for a grounder to shortstop Park Jin-man. The South Koreans erupted in a pile of red and white on the mound, throwing their manager into the air before taking a victory lap around Wukesong Stadium while waving flags.
Cuba wanted nothing more than to leave with another Olympic title, but now must instead turn its attention toward next spring’s second World Baseball Classic. The Cubans lost to Japan in the final of the inaugural event in 2006.
Baseball comes off the program for the 2012 London Games and there’s no guarantee it will return in 2016 despite the campaigning of the sport’s international federation and support from Major League Baseball.
Lee Yong-kyu’s seventh-inning double came off the Cubans’ best reliever, Pedro Lazo — the same pitcher who had thrown three scoreless innings during a 10-2 rout of the US team on Friday.
Lee Young-kyu pumped both arms at his sides after reaching second, then threw his hands into the air in delight calling for more noise from his cheering countrymen in the right-field seats.
Lazo was done and manager Antonio Pacheco put Cuba’s hopes on the shoulders of Luis Rodriguez.
For the South Koreans, this victory provided a big bonus, as 14 of their players had already secured a medal and an exemption from mandatory military service with Friday’s 6-2 semi-final victory over Japan. By law, the South Korean government exempts male athletes who earn any medal in the Olympics from the approximately two years of required duty.
Michel Enriquez hit a solo homer in the bottom of the first and he was the only Cuban to reach base against the imposing Ryu until Alfredo Despaigne’s two-out double in the fifth. Bell connected for a solo shot in the seventh.
Cuba was trying to win its fourth Olympic gold in the five baseball tournaments dating to 1992 in which baseball has been a medal sport.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS