The Korean WBC team only has one MLB player compared to Venezuela’s 22 and Choo Shin-Soo from the Cleveland Indians made sure it didn’t go unnoticed hitting a three run homer in the first inning off Carlos Silva. Silva gave up seven runs in 1.1 innings sealing Korea’s position in the finals on Monday with a 10-2 victory. Venezuela set a record committing five errors, the most ever in a single WBC game.
Hyun Soo Kim and Tae Kyun Kim combined to go 5-for-7 with three RBI to lead the Korean offense. Kim now has 11 RBI at this year’s WBC, surpassing the single-tournament record of 10 RBI set by Ken Griffey Jr (USA) and Seung Yeop (KOR) in 2006.
Silva got the start over Felix Hernandez , who is said by most to be the better pitcher. Everyone except Luis Sojo,Venezuela’s manager, who said when asked why he started Silva over Hernandez, “He’s been my best pitcher”.
One can almost make an argument for Silva saying he has gone 1-0 over 11 innings with an era of 0.82, however I would not be one of his defenders. Silva’s success was against the Netherlands and Italy who were probably the weakest hitting teams in the classic.
Hernandez, also known as King Felix, is one of the bright young stars in the MLB at only 22 years old holds a 3.80 era over the last three seasons. King Felix was hampered with injuries last year, but should be one of the premiere pitchers in the American League this season.
Silva has not had a winning season since 2004, and last year had an ERA last season of 6.45. In my mind this decision would be like if Joe Girardi started Carl Pavano over Joba Chamberlain in game seven of the World Series.
Korea’s Pitching was led by Suk-Min Yoon who scattered seven hits, one walk and struck out four over 6.1 innings. The two runs and one walk he gave up Saturday night were the first in either category he has surrendered in 16 innings of work in this year’s Classic.
Even Bobby Abreu, who had a hit and an error, was impressed with Yoon’s stuff saying, “He knows how to switch speeds and locations, he pitched a dominant game.”
Korea will play the winner of tonight’s Team USA vs Japan battle on Monday night at 9 pm EST on ESPN. The US has not played Korea yet in this WBC, however Korea has already faced their archrival Japan four times, earning a split.
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