South Korea’s baseball team faced a “thorny road” to gold at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games as they were swept by their biggest foe, Chinese Taipei. The Ryu Jung-il-led squad was stymied by left-handed Chinese Taipei starter Lin Yeou-min, 0-4, in the second game of their Group B opener at the Shaoxing Baseball and Softball Sports Center 1 in Zhejiang, China, on Tuesday. With two wins, Chinese Taipei booked the top spot in Group B, while Korea, with a 1-1 record, will have to settle for second place in the group and a spot in the Super Round. Chinese Taipei will play their final group game on Wednesday against Hong Kong, who are 1-1, while Korea will face Thailand, who are 2-1.The Super Round, which pits Group A’s first and second place finishers against Group B’s first and second place finishers, will be based on group standings .As such, Chinese Taipei starts with one win and Korea with one loss, and the pressure is on Korea to defeat both Japan and China in Pool A, who have already qualified for the Super Round, if they want to reach the final. The must-win loss to Chinese Taipei puts a dark cloud over Korea’s hopes of winning a fourth consecutive Asian Games title. After weighing Kwak Bin (Doosan Bears) and Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha Eagles), coach Ryu Jung-il chose Moon Dong-ju, who had rested his shoulder well, as his must-start card against Taiwan. Making his senior national team debut, his first in a month since Sept. 3, Moon was immediately put in jeopardy in the top of the first inning when he was hit by a double to left-center field by leadoff hitter Chung Tung-zer. He appeared to put out the fire by getting Lin Zhiwei to ground out and Lin Li to strike out on three pitches, but on a two-pitch, two-strike count, he threw a high curveball to Lin Anger for a three-run homer. Moon got Wu Nying to cook a grounder to shortstop and got a breather. Korea missed a chance to change the momentum after the offensive shift .In the top of the second inning, Yoon Dong-hui (Lotte Giants) led off with a double off Taiwanese left-handed starting pitcher Lin Yeou-min, who plays in the minor leagues for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB), on a fastball that hit the bottom of the right field fence .Park Sung-ho (SSG Landers) followed with a walk to put runners on first and second with Kim Hyung-joon (NC Dinos) and Kim Sung-yoon (Samsung Lions) back-to-back grounders. Kim Sung-yoon sent an infield hit in front of the first baseman and made a head-first slide, but was called out. With the bases loaded in the third inning, No. 3 hitter Noh Shi-hwan (Hanwha) and No. 4 Kang Baek-ho (KT WIZ) struck out in succession, and Korea piled on five more runs as Yoon Dong-hee singled up the middle to load the bases in the fourth inning. With no support from the bats, Moon Dong-ju, who had been pitching well, was unable to avoid a run .After retiring two or three straight batters, he gave up an infield single and a walk in the fourth inning to put runners on second and third with Sun Hao-wei at the plate. His curveball hit the ground first and trickled toward the backstop. After Park Se-woong (Lotte), who received the baton from Moon Dong-joo, walked two batters in the fifth inning with the bases loaded, third pitcher Choi Ji-min (KIA Tigers) cooked Lin Anger into a grounder to first base to save the inning .After getting out of a jam with runners on second and third in the sixth on a three-pitch strikeout by fourth starter Park Young-hyun (KT), the Koreans found themselves in even more trouble in the seventh when right-hander Gurin Ruii-yang, the second Taiwanese pitcher on the mound, retired the side in order. Two batters later in the eighth, Noh Si-hwan led off with a double over the center field fence, but Kang Baek-ho was thrown out at shortstop to end Korea’s last real chance at a comeback .In the bottom of the eighth, the fifth pitcher, Ko Woo-seok (LG Twins), gave up a walk and a hit-by-pitch before giving up a double to Lin Zhihao with runners on second and third to end the game .Moon took the loss after giving up two runs on three hits in four innings .Lin Yeo-min, whose fastball was only in the low 140s, struck out six and walked none in six innings with precise control to the corners to earn the win. Chinese Taipei, who fielded an elite squad of 17 professional players from the United States and their home country, 카지노사이트 dominated the game in both batting frames.