(Olympics) Baseball manager rues cold bats, mistaken pitches in loss to U.S.

▲ Oh Jae-il of South Korea reacts after striking out against the United States in the top of the seventh inning of the teams' Group B game in the Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament at Yokohama Stadium in Yokohama, Japan, on July 31, 2021. (Yonhap)

▲ Ko Young-pyo of South Korea leaves the mound during the bottom of the fifth inning of a Group B game in the Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament against the United States at Yokohama Stadium in Yokohama, Japan, on July 31, 2021. (Yonhap)

(Olympics) baseball loss-reaction

(Olympics) Baseball manager rues cold bats, mistaken pitches in loss to U.S.

YOKOHAMA, Japan, July 31 (Yonhap) -- Following his team's loss to the United States in the Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament Saturday, South Korean manager Kim Kyung-moon said he'd like to see more life from the middle of his lineup.

Kim added that the 4-2 loss at Yokohama Stadium in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, wasn't entirely on starter Ko Young-pyo, the two home runs he allowed notwithstanding.

"Ko Young-pyo is one of our aces and he pitched well today. It's just that the two mistakes he made both ended up being home runs," Kim said at the postgame press conference.

Kim was referring to the go-ahead two-run blast by Triston Casas in the fourth and a solo shot by Nick Allen in the fifth.

The offense did little to support the right hander, as South Korea struck out 14 times against five American hurlers. Starter Nick Martinez shook off a shaky first inning and struck out nine over five innings of one-run ball.

Cleanup Kang Baek-ho, who is batting .395 for the KT Wiz in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) this season, doesn't have a hit after two games, having also been silenced against Israel on Thursday.

Asked if he considered juggling his batting order, Kim said, "We couldn't get the line moving up and down the order. Their pitchers threw really well and a lot of well-hit balls went right to their fielders."

Ko, who allowed four runs on four hits in 4 2/3 innings, said he noticed the American hitters started swinging the bat with more conviction the second time through the order.

"Casas pounced on my two-strike changeup, and Allen was looking for a breaking ball from the first pitch," Ko added.

Captain Kim Hyun-soo said he and his teammates will try to forget about the loss quickly and added, "We still have an opportunity (to win a medal) and we'll try to stick together through this."

As the runner-up in Group B, South Korea will next play the Dominican Republic, runner-up from Group B, at 7 p.m. Sunday. The winner of this game will take on the winner of the game between the two No. 3 seeds, Israel and Mexico.

The U.S. moves on to play the Group A winner, Japan. The knockout stage has a double elimination format, which will allow a team to move through the loser's bracket to reach the gold medal game.

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