TOKYO, South Korean starter Ko Young-pyo failed to get out of the fifth inning while giving up a home run to Australia in the first Pool B game of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in Tokyo on Thursday.
It was a letdown of an outing for the sidearm pitcher, who was being counted on to fool Australian hitters with his breaking pitches coming out of an unusual arm angle.
South Korea trailed 2-0 with one out in the fifth when right-hander Won Tae-in took over from Ko at Tokyo Dome.
Ko had a breezy first inning, retiring the side on three groundouts after throwing only four pitches.
He pitched himself into a bit of trouble in the second, hitting Darryl George to start the inning and then giving up a one-out single to put runners at the corners.
Ko cleaned up his own mess by striking out Logan Wade and getting Robert Perkins to ground out to third.
Ko picked up two more strikeouts in the third after allowing a leadoff single.
Ko continued to labor through the lineup in the fourth inning, though. He plunked George for the second straight time, and an infield single and a walk loaded the bases for Wade, who drove in the game's first run with a sacrifice fly to center.
Ko wiggled out of the inning by getting Perkins to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.
But the big blow came with one out in the fifth, when Tim Kennelly took him over the left-center field wall for a solo shot and a 2-0 Australia lead.
Ko hung a curveball out over the plate and the Australian leadoff man made no mistake, chasing Ko from the game in the process.
Ko made 45 pitches, allowing two runs in 4 1/3 innings on 45 pitches. He struck out four but hit two and walked another.
In the first round of the tournament, a pitcher may not throw more than 65 pitches in an outing. Manager Lee Kang-chul said pregame that he'd hoped Ko would eat up as many innings as he could within that pitch count limit, but Ko came up 20 pitches short.
Source: Yonhap News Agency