Korea hammers Czechia with a quartet of homers to open Classic campaign

Looking to prove that its recent World Baseball Classic letdowns are truly a thing of the past, Team Korea flexed its muscle Thursday en route to an 11-4 win over Czechia in the World Baseball Classic on Thursday.

Two home runs from Astros infielder Shay Whitcomb and a five-RBI performance from first baseman Bo Gyeong Moon drove the Koreans to victory in their first game of Pool C play. They hit four homers in the win, their most in any WBC contest.

• Box score

Korea hadn’t hit even three home runs in a Classic game since 2009, the year it reached the WBC finals. But since then, Korea’s World Baseball Classic stays have been short and disappointing, with first-round exits in 2013, ‘17 and ‘23.

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Thursday’s triumph inside the Tokyo Dome was an authoritative first step in Korea’s journey back to Classic championship contention. Moon set the tone in the first inning by attacking a hanging slider with the bases loaded and launching it a projected 428 feet out to right-center field.

Whitcomb, who played 20 games for the Astros in each of the past two seasons, padded the lead in the third with a solo shot to left-center.

Czechia gave itself chances to cut into that lead in the early innings, but it left the bases loaded in the second and stranded two more runners in the fourth. Trailing 6-0, the Czechs finally got on the board in the fifth, when former Orioles infielder Terrin Vavra belted a three-run homer to right, slicing the deficit in half.

However, Whitcomb answered for Korea in the bottom of the frame with his second dinger, a two-run clout to left. Tigers outfielder Jahmai Jones supplied Korea’s fourth homer when he went deep in the eighth.

Czechia will look to get in the win column on Thursday night (Friday, local time in Tokyo) vs. Australia, which defeated Chinese Taipei in the opening game of the WBC on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET on FS1. Up next for Korea is a showdown against Shohei Ohtani and Samurai Japan at 5 a.m. ET Saturday on FS1.