Korea to be without closer for 2nd straight game

• Published date: 10 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

South Korea will be without the service of its injured closer, Go Woo-suk, for the second straight game at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) on Friday, a major blow to the team's chances in a crucial game against Japan later in the day.

"We'll think about pitching him maybe in the later round," manager Lee Kang-chul said of Go, who has been dealing with a stiff neck since Monday, during a pregame press conference at Tokyo Dome.

Go had an abbreviated exhibition outing against the Orix Buffaloes on Monday in Osaka with the neck issues. Further tests revealed no structural damage, and national team officials said Go was improving.

However, the right-hander, who led the Korea Baseball Organization with 42 saves last year, was not available in an 8-7 loss to Australia on Thursday and will remain sidelined Friday.

South Korea is trying to pick up the pieces after the frustrating loss from the previous night, and Lee said he'd told his players to keep their heads high.

"I told them not to stay down and beat themselves up," Lee said. "We have more games to play, and I told them we should give our best one game at a time."

Japan, world No. 1 coming off a breezy 8-1 win over China on Thursday, will be favored on paper against South Korea, but Lee said his team will not go down without a fight.

Moments before Lee's presser, Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama had called it "a 50-50 game" that could go either way.

"I think we can conjure up an extra something...