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WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC POOL A: TOKYOMarch 9, 2009Bong Jung-KeunIn-Sik KimTOKYO, JAPAN Q. Skipper, tell us about today's contest. You finally won the Tokyo round as the champion. And also, last night's contest, it's a tough loss. How did you adjust? And also, question for the starting pitcher; since Japan's hitters are so hot, how did you make mind-set as the starting pitcher? IN-SIK KIM: Two days ago, yes, Japan beat us so hard. But baseball, it might be a funny story, but now everybody recognizes how the pitcher is important for baseball games. Sometimes 95 percent of the baseball is relied upon the pitchers, especially the starting pitcher. Today our starting pitcher, Bong Jung Keun and our closer Lim-Chang Yong, and also bullpen Jong Hyun-Wook and Ryu Hyunjin, all of us pitched so great. And the player sitting next to me, he was telling me two days ago that, hey, coach, I want to pitch against Japan. That impressed me and is such a brave attitude. Today's victory, although the score was 1-0, it is such a huge win for us. Although my players are so young, some of them do not have enough experience in international matches, but they play very hard and they are very good, talented players. In today's contest, we missed some sign plays and baserunning, so these are things that I will adjust for the second round. BONG JUNG KEUN: Yes, first of all, I wished so much to pitch against Japan at least one time. Kim Kwang-Hyun, my teammate, he knows very many details about Japan's hitters. He helped me a lot with the scouting report. And since I have a strong will to pitch against Japan, I really appreciate all of my coaches and players giving me the opportunity to pitch against Japan. Yes, of course, I have confidence, and so do my teammates. Jong Hyun Wook, Ryu Hyunjin and Lim Chang Yong, all of us pitched great, and that is because of my fellows and fans back home in Korea; they, also, gave us a lot of energy. Towards the second round, we have confidence and we play hard going into the semifinal round. Once again, today's victory is such a huge victory for us. Q. Did you have any pressure after the first game with the Japan Team? And there were quite a lot of chances to score the points. What was the reason why although there were chances, the Korean Team was not able to add the scores? What do you think is the reason for that? BONG JUNG KEUN: Of course, in the last game, we lost with a big difference. However, all of the team's players were together, united, single-mind to revenge the Japan Team. We were concentrated on this game with a passion to win over the Japan Team. With confidence, we tried to bring up our confidence and we tried to concentrate on each and every ball I throw. In the last game, Choo Shin-Soo was hit by the Japanese slider, but this time I tried to hit a different break of throwing the ball. I used straight, instead. Although I can say that I had confidence in confronting the Japanese players, although they were very super players, I had the confidence to win over them. As I said earlier, there was an error in running, and in the future, I would like to overcome these with practicing and with various advice, and I will try to increase the level of the players. The Japan Team, the players are very strong and the players are very skillful. But their bullpen was a bit unstable with pitching, inside and outside, and it wasn't very stable. Also, as a Korean player, I was advised to concentrate on the outside instead of inside, and that led to our victory. Q. Can you explain your strategy of bringing in the closer with a runner in scoring position? IN-SIK KIM: Yes, they play on the same team, and in today's contest, it is such a big one-run game, and when we saw issue I row got the single, Nakajima advanced to second. So it's both ways, it's like two sides: Lim-Chang Yong knows about Aoki, and Aoki also knows about Lim-Chang Yong. So the opportunities are equal. The last pitch, it was a 2-0 pitch. I didn't ask Lim-Chang Yong, but I am guessing this is the third pitch that Aoki hit that was a ground-out to the pitcher and was a changeup. End of FastScripts |
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