Shaoxing, China, October 7, 2023: Korea shut out Chinese Taipei 2-0 in a driving rain to win the gold medal game at Shaoxing Baseball Stadium on Saturday night and give Korea its fourth straight baseball gold in the Asian Games.
Korea starter Moon Dong-ju hurled six shutout innings, allowing three hits and striking out seven in the win. He was relieved by Choi Ji -min, who pitched a scoreless seventh, and Park Yeong-hyun, who did the same in the eighth.
Go Woosuk came on in the ninth to get the final three outs for Korea.
Korea outhit Chinese Taipei 6-5 in the victory.
Pitchers had a distinct advantage this night due to the inclement conditions which made the ball hard to pick up for batters and the game proceeded at an unusually rapid pace, finishing in less than two and half hours.
Chinese Taipei starter Lin Yuu-Min allowed two runs on five hits in five innings before being pulled. He struck out five and walked two.
Korea scored both of their runs in the top of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Kim Ju-won that brought home Moon Bo-gyeong, who began the inning with a leadoff double. A wild pitch by Lin later in the frame plated Kim Hyung-jun to make it 2-0.
"We are very happy to win the gold medal. Our players did their best in the rain," Korea coach Choi II Eon stated. "We had three players who did well, including Moon Dong-ju."
Moon cited his teammates for their contributions to the victory.
"In this game I gave a very good performance," Moon commented. "We had a strong desire to win. My teammates did well and gave me inspiration tonight."
Lin was sorry he allowed Korea to score when he was on the hill.
“I tried doing my best, but in the second inning I couldn’t prevent the runs,” Lin remarked.
Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Tsung-Che refused to blame the weather for the loss.
“That’s not an excuse to lose the game,” Chen said of the persistent rain. “The two teams are in the same game, so that’s not our excuse.”
Both teams put runners on in the first inning but were unable to score.
Cheng Tsung-Che doubled off top of the right field wall to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning in what appeared to be a home run, but the umpires ruled it a double and Chinese Taipei did not score.
Chinese Taipei put two runners on with one out in the bottom of the ninth but Wu Nien-Ting then grounded into a game-ending double play.
In earlier action, Japan edged China 4-3 in the Bronze Medal Game. Japan trailed 3-2 in the eighth inning, but tied the game on an RBI single by pinch hitter Ryuga Ihara and took the lead for good when Ihara scored on an error.
China outhit Japan 7-6 but committed two errors in the loss.