Kang Baek-ho (KT Wiz) and Ko Woo-seok (LG Twins), two of the KBO’s biggest stars, have been plagued by bad luck and injuries in every international tournament they’ve played in. Kang Baek-ho was benched at the 2019 Premier 12, his first international tournament since making his professional debut, and was criticized for his attitude at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) 2023 against Australia threw cold water on the national team when he was thrown out after hitting a double to left-center field and then making a ridiculous mistake of taking his foot off the base during a ceremony at second base. In the eighth inning of a 2-2 tie against Japan at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he made a base-covering error that could have ended the inning .A shaky Go gave up a single and a walk to load the bases before collapsing .At the 2023 WBC, Go injured his right shoulder in a practice game and didn’t play a single game. The jinxed players were eager to get back on track for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. “I’ll show you a good performance from the first game,” Kang Baek-ho said cheerfully when he arrived in Hangzhou, China, on March 28, adding, “I hope you have high expectations.”Ko Woo-seok also gritted his teeth after completing his local training on March 30, saying, “I felt very sorry for (the fans) due to my international performance,” and “I wanted to wash my face .”But the international jinx has followed them to this tournament .Kang went 0-for-4 with a walk and three strikeouts against Hong Kong in the first game of Group B of the Hangzhou Asian Games at the Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Sports Center on Monday near Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China .He was held in check by opposing pitchers at the level of Korean middle and high school players, who threw slow pitches around 100 kilometers per hour .He struck out swinging with runners on first and second in the first inning and walked with runners on first and second in the third .In the fourth, he struck out swinging with the bases loaded, and in the seventh, as the leadoff hitter, he struck out swinging. In the second game of the group stage against “rival” Chinese Taipei at the same venue on Feb. 2, Kang failed to lift his head .Team manager Ryu Jung-il kept the faith and sent Kang Baek-ho to the top of the order, but he remained silent, going 0-for-4 with one strikeout .He grounded into a double play in the first inning and struck out with two outs in the third. With two outs in the eighth, he grounded out to shortstop to end the threat. With the No. 4 hitter throwing cold water on every scoring opportunity, the Korean bats never really came alive. On the day, Korea matched Chinese Taipei (7) in team hits (6), but fell to 0-4.Go Woo-seok once again had a horrible experience against Taiwan .He came on in the bottom of the eighth inning, trailing 0-2, and gave up a double and a hit-by-pitch to put runners on second and third with Lin Tzu-hao on fire. With the score tied, South Korea added a run in the 토토 bottom of the ninth.
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