Israel's baseball team opened its Olympic campaign by losing a back-and-forth cliffhanger to Korea 6-5 in 10 innings at Yokohama on Thursday afternoon.
Israel, making its Olympic baseball debut, nearly stunned South Korea for the second straight time in international competition before the defending champions eked out the win with an unlikely finish on a pair of extra-inning hit-batsmen.
The Koreans trailed 2-0 and 4-2 before grabbing a 5-4 lead.
The second of 16 games across a six-team tournament erased any doubt about Israel belonging in the field and reminded that South Korea, even with a younger and offensively weaker squad than in past competitions, remains a force.
Israel’s four- time MLB All-Star Ian Kinsler summarized the tough loss saying “we went ahead and they came back, they went ahead- and we came back… but they came away with the win.”
Israeli ace Jon Moscot opened the game with real pop in his fastball but 11 pitches in (most of them strikes, several over 90 mph) he felt a pop in his pitching arm and immediately knew he was done for the night.
Israeli veteran left-hander Jacob Fishman was pressed into action and responded brilliantly, shutting down the Korean side for three innings.
This allowed Kinsler to follow a Mitch Glasser single in the top of the fourth with his first home run as an Israeli and his first as an Olympian. Fishman tired and yielded a two-run, game-tying HR to Korean slugger OH JiHwan.
In the sixth frame, veteran catcher Ryan Lavarnway followed a Danny Valencia line-drive hit with a blast over the left-centerfield wall that would put the blue-and-white back on top 4-2 .
The lead, however, was short-lived as in the seventh left-handed slugging Koreans Jung Hoo Lee and Hynsoo Kim went back-to-back into the right field bleachers. When OH JiHwan doubled home a go-ahead run, it seemed to take the wind out of the sails of the small but enthusiastic Israeli delegation (that included medalist Yael Arad and Chairman of the Israel Olympic Committee Yigal Carmi) who came to support the Jewish state’s first ever appearance in an Olympic baseball game and the first time any Israeli team sport had represented the country since 1976.
Veteran righty Josh Zeid came on to shut down the Korean line-up in 21/3 innings, setting the stage for Lavarnway to hit a dramatic shot to right-center that knotted the score in the ninth, sending the game into extra innings.
The 10th opened according to rules of international play with two men being placed at first and second. The Israelis couldn’t push a run across. In the bottom half of the inning, former Oakland A’s Jeremy Bleich came on and the Koreans responded by playing small ball. They bunted their runners to second and third in an effort to bring home the winning run. With both the infield and outfield drawn in, OH JiHwan once again looked to be Israel’s nemesis by lifting a bloop fly to left seemed destined to fall and end the game.
Ty Kelly made a spectacular running catch going straight backward to keep the rally in check. Unfortunately, after getting ahead on the count, Bleich beaned Korean K Hur to load the bases and then barely grazed the shirt of Euji Yang to force in the walk-off run.
Israel had topped South Korea 2-1 in extra innings in 2017 during the World Baseball Classic, leading to a surge in global rankings to 24 from 43. World no. 3 South Korea, whose squad features two returning gold medalists, tipped their hats to Israel after pre-game national anthems.
Israel, among the Games’ most fascinating stories, came into the tournament first in several categories among the six-team field, but few correlated with winning baseball games.
The blue-and-white’s 24-man team lead the way in players whose Olympic biographies mention LinkedIn profiles (11) and free agent as their professional status (five).
They have the broadest range of academic degrees (economics and environmental studies among them), the least time spent in the country they are representing (just four are Israeli natives) and flash the shiniest passports on Instagram, several players having become citizens just for the Games.
They are also selling arguably the most humorous T-shirts with plays on baseball jargon. Options include “Jewced” and one with “spin rate” – a reference to pitching – above a dreidel.
As disappointing as the near upset over reigning gold medalist Korea might seem, Manager Eric Holtz was openly proud of the true grit displayed by his team.
“We didn’t have a plan B for our best pitcher going down after one batter, but everyone picked each other up. We showed that Israel baseball is for real and that our guys can play with anyone.”
Kinsler and Lavarnway, who joined Kelly with spectacular defense of their own, also remarked on fighting spirit and well rounded play their teammates displayed with Valencia making slick pickups at first and starting a textbook 3-6-1 double play. He also hit two 400-foot outs to the deepest part of the park, both caught on the warning track in dead centerfield).
Afterwards, Kinsler affirmed that baseball is here to stay and Lavarnway ended the post game press conference by saying how much it meant to him to represent Israel and Jews everywhere.
Friday presents a new challenge when Israel faces Team USA at the same venue (1 p.m. Israel time on Sport5). If anything can be said this team has heart and will be ready.
Reuters contributed to this report.