Korea Puts U.S. Back in Peril

A hundred-and-some years of baseball history and the richest players on the planet haven’t gone a long way for the American game so far in the World Baseball Classic.

Through five games, including Korea’s emphatic 7-3 win Monday night in front of 21,288 at Angel Stadium, Team USA has lost twice and needed a controversial -- and probably inaccurate -- umpire’s decision to avoid a third.

So, after gnashing its teeth and ultimately advancing through a tiebreaker in the first round, the U.S. has split its first two games of the second round, again leaving its place in the next round to the forces of ambiguity and scoreboard watching.

And for the second time in a week Team USA appeared overmatched, Hee-Seop Choi hit a pinch three-run home run in the fourth inning and Seung Yeop Lee hit a solo home run in the first, his fifth homer of the tournament. And Korea’s pitching staff, which gave up four runs in its first four games, dominated again. Korea is 5-0 overall, 2-0 in the second round.

“The toughest part about playing this tournament is sitting around watching other games being played before you go on,” U.S. Manager Buck Martinez said. “We need a little cooperation in this pool.”

Choi, who went to Dodger camp last spring vying for a starting job and this spring simply hoping to make the team, got the down-and-in pitch he loves so well from right-hander Dan Wheeler, after Lee was walked intentionally before him. He skied it past the right-field foul pole, giving Korea a 6-1 lead.

Choi might never have come to the Dodgers had the winter of 2003 gone different.

Shortly after the 2003 season, former Dodger general manager Dan Evans pursued Lee, a free agent after hitting 324 home runs in nine seasons with the Korean league’s Samsung Lions. Lee came to Los Angeles in November, but left without a contract.

According to one source, the Dodger offer was for one year at about $1 million. Lee turned it down and accepted a two-year deal worth nearly $5 million from the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League.

Two months later, Frank McCourt purchased the Dodgers, fired Evans and hired Paul DePodesta, who traded for Choi midway through the 2004 season.

Lee, whose two-run home run Sunday night was enough to beat Mexico, homered in the first inning against left-hander Dontrelle Willis.

A 22-game winner for the Florida Marlins last season, Willis was hit hard in a first-round game against Canada and lacked his best command against Korea. Lee, who bats left-handed, hit the first pitch he saw from Willis into the right-center-field stands.

Willis surrendered one home run to a left-handed hitter last season. In three innings against Korea, he gave up three runs and four hits, walked four and hit a batter. He was pulled after 59 pitches, less than half of which were strikes, and in two WBC appearances -- both U.S. losses -- he has given up eight runs in 5 2/3 innings.

His turn would come up again in the WBC final.

“I’m still excited to be here,” Willis said. “But, the bottom line is, I’m not playing good baseball. I’m a man and can admit whether I’m playing good baseball or not. I’m hoping we can advance because that’ll give me another start.”

While most of the pre-tournament offensive hype went to the power-laden lineups of the Dominican Republic and Team USA, Lee has swung the most forceful bat. Through his first-inning home run, he had all of Korea’s five home runs and had driven in 10 of its 18 runs.

Leaning toward playing his best nine, but mindful of the promises he made weeks ago to prepare his players for the regular season, Martinez started Mark Teixeira at first base over Derrek Lee, who has three home runs and eight RBIs in the tournament. Teixeira had been hitless in eight at-bats.

Second baseman Michael Young, who had three hits Sunday against Japan, was benched for Chase Utley

Also, Johnny Damon has a sore left shoulder, didn’t take batting practice or shag fly balls before the game, and Matt Holliday started in left field. Damon sent word that his arm was “barking,” and attributed it to typical spring-training stiffness, which George Steinbrenner won’t find typical at all.

It didn’t get better when they started the game.

While Korea Manager In Sik Kim appeared to have a sense of what would work and what wouldn’t against the U.S., Team USA was covering for poor pitching and playing, like it did against Canada, from behind.

“It’s very difficult to believe what happened,” Kim said. “But, this is baseball. You never know what might happen.”

Team USA left the bases loaded in the first and fourth innings, and three times in the first five innings had its first two batters reach base, and didn’t score a run. Ken Griffey Jr. homered in the third inning, which brought the U.S. to within 2-1, but then it turned to spring training again.

Two innings after Wheeler gave up the three-run home run to Choi, Mike Timlin walked the first hitter of the sixth, Byung Kyu Lee. Lee moved to third on an infield single -- kindly scored as such -- that Utley should have handled and scored on Min Jae Kim’s single to center field. Korea led, 7-1.

Utley committed two errors in the sixth, grounded out to start the seventh and was roundly booed by the crowd on his way back to the dugout.