San Diego Padres beat Team Korea 1-0 in exhibition pitchers' duel

Baseball

Published: 17 Mar. 2024, 21:46 Updated: 17 Mar. 2024, 21:49

San Diego Padres beat Team Korea 1-0 in exhibition pitchers' duel

Kim Ha-seong of the San Diego Padres runs to first base after hitting a single at the bottom of the third inning of an exhibition game against Team Korea at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

If Sunday afternoon’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Kiwoom Heroes was the dress rehearsal, Sunday evening’s clash between the San Diego Padres and Team Korea was The Show — Korean style.

The action on the field was baseball as you know and love it on both sides of the Pacific, but the crowd was pure Korea.

The classic KBO party atmosphere — loud music, constant cheering, synchronized hand movements and very little time spent sat down — was out in full force, and the Padres had clearly come prepared. From the first Padres’ cheerleader break, when the club’s Swinging Friar mascot could be seen dancing along in the crowd, it was clear that San Diego had done their homework.

Back on the field, Team Korea appeared to have done their homework too — somewhat unexpected as it’s not actually a real team and the entire roster is currently far too focused on preseason schedules with their respective teams to commit much time to this squad. It’s not even really a Korean national team, more of a Team Korea lite, minus the big leaguers and anybody else with a particularly good excuse.

But despite the slightly slapdash background to the squad, Korea held their own against the Padres throughout the opening frames. The sole slip-up was at the bottom of the first, when starter Moon Dong-ju gave up three straight walks and a two-out wild pitch allowed Xander Bogaerts to wander home.

And that was it for the next two hours. Team Korea held the Padres to that one run through the seventh inning, racking up a couple of hits of their own but failing to get anything across.

San Diego Padres' Kim Ha-seong, left, congratulates Fernando Tatis Jr. during an exhibition game against Team Korea at Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Padres’ Korean shortstop Kim Ha-seong remained in the lineup throughout the game, giving home fans plenty to cheer about even if there was not any scoring going on.

The relative success on the field, meanwhile, appeared to leave the Team Korea cheering section digging deeper and deeper into their back catalog, sounding like a slightly unhinged DJ had broken into the KBO archive by the fifth inning as they rattled through the cheer songs of every KBO club seemingly at random — presumably in an attempt to keep at least 10 percent of the crowd singing along.

Korea’s best chance to break the one-run deficit came at the top of the eighth, when Kim Hye-seong and Yoon Dong-hee hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second with two out, only for Kang Baek-ho to ground the ball straight back to pitcher Wandy Peralta for an easy out to end the inning.

There was another at the top of the ninth, when Korea got two runners on base with no outs, but the Padres made short work of the rest of the lineup to mop up the final outs for a narrow 1-0 win.

Padres starter Jhony Brito took the win in the pitchers’ duel with four strikeouts and one walk in two innings of work. Korea starter Moon Dong-ju was hit with the loss, giving up one run on one hit with four walks and two strikeouts in two innings pitched.

Sunday’s game was the second exhibition game ahead of the 2024 MLB Seoul Series and the Padres first game on Korean soil. The Los Angeles Dodgers had earlier beat KBO club the Kiwoom Heroes 14-3 in the opening exhibition game.

The Padres will take on the reigning KBO champion LG Twins at midday on Monday in their second exhibition games, before the Dodgers face Team Korea.

The two big league clubs will then return to Gocheok Sky Dome on Wednesday to face each other in the Seoul Series, the official opener of the 2024 MLB season. That game will be played at 7 p.m. Wednesday, with Game 2 at the same time on Thursday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]