U.S. loses baseball opener to South Korea 8-7

BEIJING — It used to be America’s pastime.

Not anymore.

This season nearly three in 10 major leaguers and half the players in the minor leagues were born outside the U.S. As were three of the last four Cy Young Award winners and two of the last four MVPs in the, well, American League.

And apparently played better in a lot of places too. Like South Korea, for example, which scored two ninth-inning runs Wednesday on a pair of fielding mistakes to beat the U.S., 8-7, on the first day of play in the Beijing Olympic tournament.

“You have to tip your hat to them,” U.S. manager Davey Johnson said. “They came back against our closer after⅜ we came back against their closer. It’s just one of those nights”

Pinch-hitter Keunwoo Jeong started the winning rally with a leadoff double just inside the third-base line. After a groundout moved Jeong to third, the Koreans tried to squeeze the tying run in. But ninth-place hitter Youngmin Ko nearly fouled into a double play so Korean Manager Kyungmoon Kim pulled him for Taekkeun Lee, who grounded sharply to second baseman Jayson Nix.

That did the trick as Nix threw wildly to the plate, allowing the tying run to score.

“If we make a little better play there, we’ll win the game,” Johnson said.

Or if they had made a little better play a couple of pitches later when Lee raced to third after pitcher Jeff Stevens’ pick-off attempt went right by first baseman Matt Brown.

Lee was able to score when Jongwook Lee followed with a line drive to shallow center.

All in all it was an inauspicious debut for the U.S., which won the gold medal in Sydney eight years ago but didn’t even qualify for the Athens Games in 2004, then got bounced in the second round of the World Baseball Classic two years ago.

Trailing 6-4 entering the final inning, the U.S. started its comeback when Mike Hessman led off with a towering blast well beyond the left-field wall off closer Kijoo Han.

Catcher Taylor Teagarden followed with a single before Brian Barden doubled to the wall in right-center, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position with nobody out.

Right-hander Suk Min Yoon then came on to strike out John Gall and get Nix to pop out before Brown, an Angels minor leaguer who drove in a run in the first, singled to left to put the U.S. ahead.

But Korea wouldn’t give in either, mounting their game-winning comeback against a guy who has struck out 102 batters in 831/3 innings split between Class AA and Class AAA this summer.