Hyun Soo Kim, a former big league outfielder, hit Jeremy Bleich with a two-run homer and won the game for South Korea’s 11-1 win over Israel at the Olympics.
Bleich was out of the game when Soo, who had played in 2016 for Baltimore and Philadelphia, hit against Bleich to complete a five-inning seven-run victory. Bleich will be retiring in 2019, and Bleich prepares advanced scouting reports to the Pirates.
Soo scored his second double of game against Shlomo Lipetz (42-year-old right-hander). He will resume his job at New York City Winery following the Olympics. Soo scored on Hyeseong Kim’s single, making it the first game of the tournament that was cut short by an Olympic rout.
South Korea (3-1), with 18 hits, will play the United States and Japan on Wednesday to secure a spot in the gold-medal game. In its opening game in Japan, South Korea defeated Israel 6-5 in 10 innings.
Israel (1-3) faces the Dominican Republic (1-1).
Major League Baseball prohibits 40-man roster players from going to the Olympics. Many teams also block top eligible prospects.
South Korea led 3-0 with Ji-hwan Oh hitting a two-run homer. Baek-ho Kang scored four runs.
Min-woo Kim, the starter, allowed two hits in four 1/3 scoreless innings. In the fifth, he walked a batter. Won-joon Choi walked two and hit one. This gave him a run.
Sang-woo Cho (1-1) retired Ryan Lavarnway with an inning-ending humpback strike to the pitcher.
South Korea won the bottom half of the game against Alex Katz (Chicago Cubs minor leaguer), who was charged with six runs, five earned, in the third inning.
Joey Wagman (0-2), who was released from Oakland’s farm in 2018, faced 22 batters. He gave up three runs and 10 hits in just 3 1/3 innings.
