The Korea Herald

Feeling Dodger blue

SYDNEY/SEOUL (Yonhap) ― Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers won his first start of the 2014 season against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Australia on Sunday, throwing five shutout innings in L.A.’s 7-5 win in the second game of the MLB opening series Down Under.Ryu stymied the Diamondbacks at Sydney Cricket Ground, yielding just two hits and one walk while striking out five batters. He also went 1 for 2 with a run scored. He threw 87 pitches, 55 of them for strikes.Ryu opened his sophomore big

March 23, 2014

Ryu Hyun-jin throws 5 shutout innings to win season debut for Dodgers

Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers won his first start of the 2014 season against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Australia on Sunday, throwing five shutout innings in LA's 7-5 win in the second game of the Major League Baseball (MLB) opening series Down Under. Ryu stymied the Diamondbacks at Sydney Cricket Ground, yielding just two hits and one walk while striking out five batters. He also went 1-for-2 with a run scored at the plate. He threw 87 pitches, 55 of them for strikes. Ryu opened

March 23, 2014

Ryu Hyun-jin throws 5 shutout innings to win season debut for Dodgers

Pitcher Yoon to begin season in minors

South Korean pitcher Yoon Suk-min will begin his first U.S. season in the minors.The Baltimore Orioles said Wednesday, local time, that they have optioned Yoon to their Triple-A affiliate in Virginia, the Norfolk Tide, where the right-hander is expected to be a starter.Yoon, 27, signed a three-year contract worth $5.575 million in February. He didn’t pitch his first preseason game until last week, after getting his work permit in a drawn-out process that forced him to travel to Canada for a few

March 20, 2014

Pitchers having painful spring

TAMPA, Florida (AP) ― Jarrod Parker, Kris Medlen and Luke Hochevar are out for the season, Patrick Corbin and Brandon Beachy might join them in the operating room.All over spring training, there’s been an outbreak of wrecked elbows and pained pitchers.Next stop, those dreaded words: Tommy John surgery.“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Tommy John himself said Tuesday. “Tommy John surgery will grow exponentially in the next 50 years.”“I really think there will come a day when if you have 12 pitcher

March 19, 2014

Rivalry gets early kick start in 2014 MLB season

SYDNEY (AP) ― Suspensions to eight players and a controversial NL West-clinching swimming pool incident last season helped expand a growing rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks.But Dodgers manager Don Mattingly says he doesn’t expect any serious animosity to carry over from last year when the teams meet to open the major league season Saturday and Sunday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. But he couldn’t rule it out either.The suspensions came after a brawl last June, and

March 19, 2014

Diamondbacks and Dodgers arrive Down Under

SYDNEY (AP) ― The Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers arrived to a very low-key welcome in Australia on Tuesday for their Major League Baseball season-opening series this weekend after 15-hour flights from the U.S. west coast.The Diamondbacks arrived first at Sydney airport about 6 a.m. local time Tuesday, followed about four hours later by the Dodgers.“It’s great to be here,” said Dodgers’ veteran announcer Vin Scully.There were only a few autograph seekers to meet both teams, unlike r

March 18, 2014

Dodgers, D-Backs off to Australia

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona (AP) ― “G’donya” to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers.They’re off to Australia to open the major league baseball season.Both teams played a spring training game Sunday, then boarded their chartered planes for a flight of 15 hours or so to Sydney.Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick, who never has been to Australia, called it “a great adventure.”The teams opened spring training early to get ready for the trip. When they return, they’ll have a handful of spring games

March 17, 2014

Yoon shines in Orioles debut

SARASOTA, Florida (AP) ― South Korean right-hander Yoon Suk-min threw one shutout inning in his debut with the Baltimore Orioles, who got a home run from Chris Davis in a 2-1 victory over a New York Yankees’ split-squad Saturday.The 27-year-old Yoon didn’t exactly face a Murderer’s Row of Yankees, who sent most of their stars to Panama for an exhibition game.Yoon entered in the seventh with the score tied at 1. He gave up a single to Ramon Flores, then retired Mason Williams and Kyle Roller on f

March 16, 2014

New face emerges as unlikely hero for Nexen in preseason

A virtually unknown outfielder has emerged as an unlikely hero for the Nexen Heroes so far this preseason in the Korea Baseball Organization.Kang Ji-kwang, a 23-year-old pitcher-turned-outfielder, has taken the league by storm, barely a week into the preseason. On Thursday, the right-handed batter belted two home runs and drove in three runs as the Heroes defeated the SK Wyverns 6-0. Both of the long balls were hit off SK’s former Major League Baseball starter Jo-Jo Reyes.Kang now leads the leag

March 14, 2014

New face emerges as unlikely hero for Nexen in preseason

Underachieving righty to start first game at Kia’s ballpark

An underachieving right-hander was tabbed Thursday to start the first official game at the new stadium for the Kia Tigers in the top domestic baseball league.The Korea Baseball Organization club said Song Eun-beom will start the preseason game against the Doosan Bears on Saturday at the new Gwangju-Kia Champions Field.The ballpark is named after the Tigers’ home city of Gwangju, about 330 kilometers south of Seoul. The Tigers as a franchise have the most championships in the KBO’s 32-year histor

March 13, 2014

Samsung Lions eye fourth consecutive title: manager

The Samsung Lions have won the past three championships in the top domestic baseball league, and the goal this year is to extend the impressive streak, the team’s manager said Wednesday.After the Lions wrapped up their 50-day spring training in Guam and then in Okinawa this week, Ryu Joong-il made it clear that he won’t settle for anything less than another title.“Our objective this year is of course to win our fourth consecutive championship,” Ryu was quoted as saying in the Lions’ press releas

March 5, 2014

Busan to build baseball Hall of Fame

Busan inked an agreement with the national governing body of professional baseball Tuesday to build the sport’s first official Hall of Fame in the country.Busan, the country’s second-largest city about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, reached a deal with the Korea Baseball Organization to build the Hall of Fame in its county of Kijang by 2016.Building the commemorative hall is part of the KBO’s project to celebrate more than 100 years of baseball and 30-plus years of professional baseball in t

March 4, 2014

Rangers lineup has global flair

SURPRISE, Arizona (AP) ― When Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington fills out his lineup card on opening day, he will likely write down the names of players from seven different countries, plus Puerto Rico.Baseball is clearly universal at Texas.“When we’re out there on the field, we’re all from the same country. We all represent the Texas Rangers,” said Elvis Andrus, the shortstop from Venezuela. “Where you come from, or your nationality, actually don’t matter. When we’re all together, we’re fami

Feb. 27, 2014

Prosecution raids KBO over corruption allegations

Prosecutors on Thursday raided the head office of the nation’s professional baseball governing body as part of their investigation into allegations that several employees embezzled its funds. The employees of the Korea Baseball Organization, including a former secretary general whose identity has been withheld, are under suspicion of siphoning off the government funds worth 713 million won ($667,000) by cooking the books, prosecutors said.A team of prosecutors and investigators at the Seoul Cent

Feb. 27, 2014

Average salary of S. Korean baseballers tops W100m mark

The average annual salary of South Korean professional baseball players has surpassed the 100 million won mark in 2014 for the first time in history, the baseball governing body said Wednesday. According to the report released by the Korea Baseball Organization, a total of 477 South Korean players, excluding rookies and foreign players, will receive a record high of 106.4 million won ($99,198) on average for the 2014 season, up 11.8 percent from the previous record of 95.17 million won last yea

Feb. 26, 2014

MLB bans most home collisions

NEW YORK (AP) ― Rather than ban home plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season.In what both sides said was a one-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runner’s direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate.“It’s not a radical departure from what it had been,” Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said.The new rule, 7.13, states “a

Feb. 25, 2014

MLB managers set to try out replay in spring training

KISSIMMEE, Florida (AP) ― Major league teams will each have at least five games this spring where managers can challenge plays as part of the major expansion of instant replay which begins this season.Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez is looking forward to getting acquainted with it.“Those five games that we have the actual television, I’m challenging everything just to get a feel for it,” he said. “I’m sure that the umpires will appreciate that.”Gonzalez, Houston manager Bo Porter, Tigers manager

Feb. 23, 2014

MLB managers set to try out replay in spring training

Ryu aware of sophomore slump talk

GLENDALE, Arizona (AP) ― Ryu Hyun-jin begins his second season with the Los Angeles Dodgers confronted by a question that is inevitable for any pitcher coming off a good rookie year.As in, can the left-hander avoid the so-called sophomore slump?Excuse Ryu if he doesn’t sound too worried. Slumps are possible anywhere.“There is a sophomore slump in Korea, too,” Ryu said Tuesday through an interpreter after throwing batting practice for the first time in camp.Ryu didn’t suffer one then and doesn’t

Feb. 19, 2014

Yoon wants to start for Orioles

SARASOTA, Florida (AP) ― A day after he officially signed a three-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles, Yoon Suk-min said his goal in coming to the major leagues was to be a starting pitcher.The 27-year-old South Korean will have to compete for a spot on the Orioles’ suddenly competitive staff. With Ubaldo Jimenez in camp for a physical, Baltimore’s starters look to be Jimenez, Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez and Bud Norris.Yoon may be sent to the bullpen.Jimenez agreed to a fou

Feb. 19, 2014

Introduced as Oriole, pitcher Yoon Suk-min vows not to back down

As he was formally introduced as a member of the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, South Korean pitcher Yoon Suk-min said he will not back down from challenges in Major League Baseball.The Orioles held a press conference in Sarasota, the site of their spring training, to unveil the right-hander as its newest member. Yoon signed a three-year contract worth $5.75 million. The deal was first reported last week but the club waited until Yoon passed the physical before making the acquisition official on

Feb. 19, 2014