Tokyo: Up-and-coming stars in the South Korean baseball league will get to test their mettle against the mighty Japan this weekend as the two countries renew their rivalry in exhibition games in Tokyo.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korea and Japan will go toe-to-toe at 6:30 p.m. Saturday and again at 7 p.m. Sunday, both times at Tokyo Dome. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) scheduled these games, along with two earlier games against the Czech Republic in Seoul, to help the national team gear up for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March next year. South Korea, Japan, and the Czech Republic will all play in Pool C in the preliminary round, with Australia and Chinese Taipei being the two other nations in the group.
South Korea managed to handle the Czechs with ease, defeating them 3-0 while striking out 17 batters, and then overpowering them 11-1 with 17 hits. However, Japan, the 2023 WBC champion and world No. 1, presents a whole different challenge for South Korea and its manager, Ryu Ji-hyun. South Korea has lost nine consecutive games against Japan in pro-vs.-pro competitions, including at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 WBC. Ryu has emphasized this week that he will try to win both games in Tokyo, despite them being pre-WBC tuneups, because any game against Japan carries extra significance.
On this trip, Ryu has taken a team mostly made up of 20-something rising stars in the KBO and, in the cases of rookie pitchers Jeong Woo-joo and Bae Chan-seung, two teenagers not even a year out of high school. The 26-year-old left-hander Son Ju-young is the oldest pitcher on the team.
The position player group includes leading KBO Rookie of the Year candidate Ahn Hyun-min, who led the league with a .448 on-base percentage and ranked second overall with a 1.018 on-base plus slugging. Ryu has already designated the 22-year-old as the team's No. 2 hitter for both games in Tokyo.
Roh Si-hwan, with a pair of 30-homer, 100-RBI campaigns under his belt at age 24, and Moon Bo-gyeong, coming off his second-straight 100-RBI season at 25, will be batting in the heart of the order. Infielder Song Sung-mun, scheduled to be posted for MLB clubs this winter, is considered ancient on this team at 29.
Since the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, the KBO has been assembling national teams with younger players to provide them with early exposure to international competition ahead of the 2026 WBC. Several players who competed at the under-24 Asia Professional Baseball Championship in 2023 and the World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 in 2024 have traveled to Tokyo this week.
The current roster is without Major League Baseball (MLB) players, such as Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants, Kim Hye-seong of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and free agent infielder Kim Ha-seong. The KBO is also gauging interest among U.S.-born players of Korean descent, including Detroit Tigers outfielder Jahmai Jones.
Japan, too, will play without its MLB stars like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki, a trio of pitchers -- with Ohtani being a two-way unicorn -- who helped the Los Angeles Dodgers win their second straight World Series title earlier this month. However, Samurai Japan remains a formidable team, as Ryu pointed out this week, featuring some of the top players from the Nippon Professional Baseball.
Key position players include Hiroshima Toyo Carp infielder Kaito Kozono, who won the Central League batting title with a .309 average; Hanshin Tigers outfielder Shota Morishita, who finished second in the Central League with 23 home runs; and Yokohama DeNA BayStars infielder Shugo Maki, one of five players from the 2023 WBC championship squad on the current team.
The pitching staff features the reigning saves leaders from both the Central League and the Pacific League: Shinya Matsuyama of the Chunichi Dragons (46 saves) and Kaima Taira of the Saitama Seibu Lions (31 saves). Lions left-hander Chihiro Sumida set new career bests with 10 wins and a 2.59 ERA this year, ranking eighth in the Pacific League in the latter category.