OSAKA, With every piece in its proper place, South Korea's infield defense turned in a rock solid performance Tuesday in its final exhibition game prior to the World Baseball Classic (WBC).
A day after committing three errors in a 4-2 loss to the Orix Buffaloes, South Korea did not make any while beating the Hanshin Tigers 7-4 at Kyocera Dome Osaka.
Backup shortstop Oh Ji-hwan was forced into Monday's starting lineup, with the absence of Choi Jeong at third forcing regular shortstop Kim Ha-seong to handle the hot corner. Oh made two errors in a matter of minutes in Monday's loss, and Kim, who later moved back to shortstop after Choi came off the bench, committed one error himself.
But Choi, who had been dealing with some bumps and bruises, drew back into the starting lineup Tuesday. And Kim was back at his usual spot at shortstop, to the right of Gold Glove-winning second baseman, Tommy Edman.
Kim and Edman recorded the first two putouts of the game cleanly, and it was mostly smooth sailing from that point and on.
Kim was particularly busy in this game. He made some wobbly throws to first base in the second and fourth, pulling it just a bit to force first baseman Park Byung-ho off the bag. Park managed to get his foot down to the bag in time on both occasions, though.
Kim then made a highlight-worthy play in the sixth, snaring a grounder up the middle, making a deft spin and firing a strike to Park.
In the seventh, Kim sprinted to his right on a chopper by Seishiro Sakamoto and made a perfect one-hop throw to his first baseman.
Choi made no mistake on the lone grounder hit in his direction, moving to his left and making a spinning throw in the fifth.
Edman has been everything South Korea had hoped when the team recruited the half-Korean's services. The 2021 National League Gold Glove winner has made things look easy with his smooth fielding in Osaka, and will look to carry that form to Japan for the tournament.
Edman said after the game he has enjoyed playing alongside Kim, the Gold Glove finalist at shortstop last year.
"I've always admired his game. He's a very good defensive player. He has a lot of range out there," Edman said. "It's been fun to play with him. Ha-seong made a lot of great plays again today, and hopefully, we can do that again during the WBC."
Choi, who claimed he is 100 percent healthy, said he and his teammates weren't too worried about miscues from Monday's game.
"In baseball, there are bound to be errors, and you can't be perfect all the time," he said. "Though we made those errors, we didn't panic at all. Errors will always be part of the game. Now that we're about to start the tournament, we have to really bear down and focus."
Source: Yonhap News Agency