South Korea sets record with 22-2 win over China in WBC

TOKYO (AP) — Kunwoo Park and Ha-Seong Kim hit grand slams in back-to-back innings, and South Korea set a World Baseball Classic scoring record with a 22-2 victory over China on Monday night in a game between teams already eliminated.

South Korea broke the run record it had held since Japan beat China 18-2 in the first round of the WBC starter in 2006.

In the previous Group B match, Australia defeated the Czech Republic 8-3 and reached the quarterfinals against Cuba on Wednesday. Japan plays Italy the next day in the second quarterfinal.

In Group D, the Dominican Republic defeated Nicaragua 6-1.

South Korea (2-2) finished third in Pool B and failed to advance beyond the first round for the third straight WBC. The South Koreans finished third in the initial tournament in 2006 and were runners-up in 2009.

China (0-4) has never made it past the first round. The last place in the group means that he will have to go through qualification to reach the 2026 tournament.

The South Koreans took a 4-2 lead with two runs in the second, then opened the game with eight runs in the third, six in the fourth and four in the fifth. Play was stopped after five innings under the tournament’s mercy rule, which calls for games to end if a team wins by 15 runs after five innings or by 10 runs after seven.

Park had five RBIs, San Diego Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim four, and Hyseong Kim and Jung Hoo Lee three apiece for South Korea, which topped China 20-4. Park hit his slam in the fourth off Hailong Sun and Ha-Seong Kim hit his in the fifth off Changlong Su.

Winner Hyeong Jun So came on to start the second inning and retired nine straight batters.

Underdog Alan Carter, a minor leaguer for the Los Angeles Angels, allowed four runs, four hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings.

PHOENIX (AP) — Jaden Rudd hit a two-run double in the fifth inning, Harry Ford added a solo shot and Great Britain won its first WBC game.

Graham Spraker earned the win by pitching 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief while Ian Gibaut earned the save. Yapson Gomez of Colombia, who gave up Rudd’s double in the fifth, took the loss.

Dayan Frias had two hits and two RBIs for Colombia, which fell to 1-1 in the tournament. Great Britain improved to 1-2.

MIAMI (AP) — San Diego Padres stars Juan Soto and Manny Machado homered as the Dominican Republic posted its first WBC group victory.

Rafael Devers hit a two-out RBI double in the first off Nicaragua starter JC Ramirez, powering Soto to a 1-0 lead. Eloy Jimenez’s single in the second scored Soto again and gave the Dominicans a 2-0 lead.

The winner Cristian Javier only allowed two hits and struck out four in four innings.

The Dominican Republic (1-1) doubled their lead in the fourth when Francisco Mejía singled off Fidencio Flores with a groundout to score Willy Adames, then Julio Rodríguez singled to left field to drive in Jeimer Candelario.

Soto fired a shot to right field by Junior Téllez to make it 5–0 in the fifth, and Machado tagged Téllez in the next inning with a fly out to right-center field.

Soto accounted for three runs and one RBI. Machado added an RBI and had a double in the ninth.

Nicaragua (0-3) made it 6-1 in the eighth after Elián Miranda’s RBI single with the bases loaded. Ramírez took the loss.

TOKYO – Milwaukee Brewers prospect Alex Hall had four RBIs as Australia (3-1) advanced past the first round for the first time in five WBC appearances, finishing second in the group behind Japan ( 4-0). The Czechs (1-3) finished fourth.

Logan Wade hit a tiebreaking two-run double off the right-field wall in the seventh off underdog Marek Minarik, driving in Robbie Glendinning and Aaron Whitefield for a 3–1 lead.

Hall homered in the first, the only hit against Martin Schneider in 5 1/3 innings. Schneider was pulled after 68 pitches, having reached the limit.

Eric Sogard had a tying RBI single in the third off Mitch Neunborn that scored Petr Zyma. Hall hit a two-run triple in the eighth and a run-scoring groundout in the ninth.

Marek Chlup hit a two-run single in the eighth for the Czechs.