Korea defeated Israel, 6-5, in 10 innings in the second game of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic baseball tournament.
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"The first game of a tournament is always challenging," said Korea's manager Kyung-moon Kim. "This game turned out even more difficult than we had figured. I'm thankful that our players didn't give up and stayed focused through the end."
What made it so difficult?
"To tell you the honest truth, the fact left-hander Jake Fishman came into the game much earlier than we expected. This made it very challenging to us."
Shortstop Ji-hwan Oh hit a home run and had a three-RBI night.
"I was able to hit a home run, even if I don't think I had my best swing on that ball. It took a lot to get on the scoreboard because their left-handed reliever came in early in the game and pitched very well."
Right fielder Jung-hoo Lee also homered.
"There are many venues which look like this in Korea," he commented, "We figured out well how to hit the ball in the air and take advantage of the wind."
Lee said Korea has one objective: "We came here to win it all. We will do our best to win every single game."
Lee also talked about his personal experience in the Olympics: "Baseball is the same game anywhere in the world and each tournament. The real difference here is that we live in the village. This changes things a little bit."
"I think we played a heck of a ballgame," said Israel's manager Eric Holtz. "We followed our game plan and executed everything well until the tenth inning. Of course, we didn't have a plan about losing our starting pitcher in the first."
What happened to Moscot? "We are not sure right now, but it has something to do with his elbow."
Do you think that Jeremy Bleich hit back to back batters in the tenth because of the rust coming for not having played most of the season? "Not really. I think the ball simply got away. It had nothing to do with rust."
Former Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Ian Kinsler commented: "It was a back and forth, intense and hard-fought game. We gave everything we had, and it's unfortunate it didn't come out the way we wanted, but tomorrow we are not going to roll over. Our mindset is just to win. We understand what we need to do. Tonight it's a little bitter, but we still know what we need to do."
Ryan Lavarnway hit a couple of home runs.
"The first one was on a slider, the second on a four-seem fastball up in the zone. The wind was blowing out tonight. You could tell it from the flags, even if you didn't really feel it on the field."
Lavarnway congratulated Korea.
"They are an outstanding team, very well-coached. We are proud of the way we played."
