2018 Asian Games

The 2018 Asian Games were held in Jakarta, Indonesia; the baseball portion ran from August 21 to September 1, 2018. They were the largest Asian Games yet for baseball as 10 teams competed in a two-tier format. The six highest-ranked Asian teams ( Japan,  South Korea,  Chinese Taipei,  People's Republic of China,  Hong Kong and  Pakistan skipped the first round, as did host  Indonesia (making their Asian Games baseball debut). Competing for the final spot in round two were  Sri Lanka (making their Asian Games debut in baseball),  Thailand, and  Laos (making their international tournament debut) ( Mongolia was originally slated for this pool as well but was a late withdrawal).

Following the Games, South Korea's team selection process was criticized, that some players were picked just to get them out of their military service requirement. As a result, the selection system was changed prior to the 2023 Games.

See 2018 Asian Games (Rosters) for information on players, managers and coaches.

Games

August 21

•  Thailand 15,  Laos 0. As expected, Laos struggles in their international debut, losing to Thailand handily. 2B Naruephol Muangkasem homers and scores 3 and 1B Chayaphat Suanthong drives in 3. Siraphop Nadee, Adichat Wongvichit and Phanuwat Sukmuang combine on a one-hit, one-walk six-inning mercy rule shutout. 3B/2B Peun Silouanglath gets the lone hit for Laos, while Phithak Hopkhop takes the loss.

August 22

•  Sri Lanka 15,  Laos 10. Laos fares much better in their second game but again loses to a more experienced team; Sri Lanka gets its first Asian Games win. Madumal Ponna Handi Tharidu pitches 2 1/3 shutout innings to save it for Kankani Karunarathne. LF Amila Pushpa Kumara Galbokka Hewage has 4 hits and 4 RBI while CF Sameera Rathnayake drives home four and finishes a homer shy of the cycle. Cola Phouangkeo takes the loss, while SS Gniatou Nalor goes 5 for 5 with a homer, four runs and four RBI as a big standout for Laos.

August 23

•  Thailand 14,  Sri Lanka 3. Thailand advances to round two with a win. C John Daru rapped four hits and drove in four and 1B Chayaphat Suanthong and LF Sanyalak Pipatpinyo each have three hits, while Kevin Kawin Irwin gets the win. Sanjeewa Udayasiri Jayarathne Badde Gedara is the losing pitcher. DH Hena Kanakanamge Kasthuri Akala Ranasinghe scores twice and 2B Sahan Avishka Dias Gunasekara Gangoda Gamage drives in two.

August 26

•  Hong Kong 7,  Indonesia 4. Hong Kong spoils the host's debut as 1B/P Matthew Holliday scores 2, drives in 2 and saves the win for Ka-Ho Sam Leung. Faldy Akhmad Zulfikar comes off the bench to go 3 for 3 with a run, getting 3 of his team's five hits. Chindy Patria Yudharana takes the loss.
•  Japan 15,  Pakistan 0. Japan opens strong as RF Takehiro Tsujino drives in four, LF Kohei Sasagawa drives in three and C Ryo Kinami goes 3 for 4 with 3 runs. Yudai Aranishi gets the win over Tariq Nadeem in a six-inning mercy rule game.
•  People's Republic of China 15,  Thailand 0. Quan Gan flings a one-hit, one-walk gem, fanning nine in a six-inning mercy rule win. LF Jinghao Zhu goes 3 for 4 with 3 runs and 4 RBI while DH Shunyi Yang is 3 for 5 and drives in four. Siraphop Nadee takes the defeat, while 2B Naruephol Muangkasem gets the lone Thai hit.
•  Chinese Taipei 2,  South Korea 1. The highly-favored defending champs (with stars from the Korea Baseball Organization) loses a close match to Taiwan's team of amateur players. Sheng-Feng Wu (5 IP), Tsung-Hao Wang (3 IP) and Cheng-Hao Wang (1 IP) stifle the Korean offense except for a homer by DH Jae-hwan Kim. Meanwhile, 2017 KBO MVP Hyeon-jong Yang serves up a first-inning homer to CF Chia-Yu Lin with 1B Chien-Ming Chiang aboard.

August 27

•  Pakistan 8,  Thailand 1. SS Arsalan Jamashaid, 3B Faqir Hussain and RF Ubaid Ullah each score twice, Jamashaid homering. Muhammad Usman and Inayat Ullah Khan combine to fan 15, the only run coming on a homer by CF Joseph Daru. Kevin Kawin Irwin takes the loss.
•  Chinese Taipei 16,  Hong Kong 1. LF Ju-Liang Tai goes 4 for 4, 3B Wei-Chih Chen and C Chia-Wei Huang each score three and 2B Po-Ting Hsiao and DH Han Lin each drive in 3 in a romp. Cheng-Hsien Lin gets the win over Chung-Hei Leung. Hong Kong's only run comes when RF/LF Wing-Sing Li drives in CF Ho-Lam Andy Lo.
•  Japan 17,  People's Republic of China 2. China goes to Pirates farmhand Haicheng Gong, the only player in the tournament in the US pro ranks in 2018. He is mauled for 11 runs in 2/3 of an inning as Japan scores 13 in the first. 3B Shohei Morishita drives in 7 while DH Momotaro Matsumoto homers twice, triples and drives in 3. Akiyoshi Katsuno gets the win. 2B Xiaolei Du drives in both of China's runs, the most of any losing team in a day of routs.
•  South Korea 15,  Indonesia 0. In a five-inning mercy rule game, SS Jae-gyun Hwang homers twice and drives in five. C Jae-won Lee goes 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and 2B Min-woo Park scores three times. Chung-yeon Choi gets the win, Nanda Dwi Saputra the defeat. CF Rizki Ramadan has 2 of Indonesia's 3 hits.

August 28

•  South Korea 21,  Hong Kong 3. RF Jung-hoo Lee singles, doubles, homers twice and drives in four while SS/3B Jae-gyun Hwang also drives in four. Yong-chan Lee gets the win, Kun-Hin Yeung the loss. 1B/3B Matthew Holliday homers and drives in a pair for Hong Kong.
•  Japan 24,  Thailand 0. CF Asahi Sato goes 5 for 5 with 5 runs and hits for the cycle while 3B/SS Tsuyoshi Tamura has 4 runs and 5 RBI and backup 1B Michiori Okabe hits a grand slam in a five-inning mercy rule win. DH John Daru and 1B Chayaphat Suanthong get Thailand's only hits. Takumi Takahashi takes the win, while Alexander Clark is handed the defeat.
•  People's Republic of China 16,  Pakistan 3. In the closest of the four blowouts today, 3B Chen Chen scores four and CF Yunqi Song drives in four while finishing a triple shy of a cycle. UF Ubaid Ullah scores two runs for Pakistan, while 1B Jawad Ali has all 3 of their RBI. Weiqiang Meng gets the win. Ihsan Ullah allows four in four but his bullpen gives up 12 in 3.
•  Chinese Taipei 15,  Indonesia 0. RF Tzu-Hsien Chan drives in four and SS Chen-Fei Lin drives in five. Seven Taiwanese hurlers each work one inning, resting the staff for round two. Chien-Lung Huang gets the win. Chindy Patria Yudharana allows 6 runs in 1/3 of an inning to take the loss. 3B Diva Reza Fabil and CF Rizki Ramadan get the only hits for the hosts.

August 30

•  Pakistan 10,  Indonesia 2. 1B Jawad Ali again leads Pakistan, scoring two, driving in three and homering. Inayat Ullah Khan allows one hit in 3 1/3 shutout innings of relief to save the win for Muhammad Usman. Backup C Faldy Akhmad Zulfikar is a bright spot for Indonesia again, going 2 for 2 with a RBI.
•  South Korea 5,  Japan 1. 1B Byung-ho Park, a former major leaguer, goes 3 for 4 with a dinger and Yong-chan Lee wins again. SS Sho Aoyagi goes 3 for 3 for Japan, while Katsutoshi Satake is the losing hurler.
•  Hong Kong 5,  Thailand 4. The first one-run game in three days comes down to the last at-bat. After Thai CF Joseph Daru and Hong Kong DH Ho-Yin Benny Tam both hit two-run homers earlier, it is 4-4 entering the bottom of the 9th. With one out, 2B Kin-Chung Tsang singles off Thailand's Siraphop Nadee and 1B Matthew Holliday doubles him in; it is Tsang's second run. Ka-Ho Sam Leung goes to 2-0, the only Hong Kong hurler to win in the tournament.
•  Chinese Taipei 1,  People's Republic of China 0. China nearly pulls off an upset but loses a pitcher's duel. Quan Gan pitches 5 shutout innings before 1B Chien-Ming Chiang drives in LF Ju-Liang Tai with the game's lone run. Cheng-Hao Wang saves the win for Chien-Lung Huang.

August 31

•  Pakistan 12,  Hong Kong 2. In a battle for 5th place, Pakistan easily beats Hong Kong. SS Arsalan Jamashaid scores 4 runs and RF Ubaid Ullah 3, while CF Muhammad Sumair Zawar drives in four and 1B Jawad Ali drives in 3. Ihsan Ullah goes the distance to beat Chung-Hei Leung. RF/P Wing-Sing Li and LF Tsun-Wai Yung each go 2 for 3 with a run.
•  Indonesia 12,  Thailand 11. The hosts get their first baseball win at an Asian Games, going up 11-0 after 3 and then surviving a Thai comeback. Andika Arlistianto gets the win in relief of Hadi Nur Muhammad while Chindy Patria Yudharana gets the save. Kevin Kawin Irwin is roughed up for 11 runs (7 earned) in 2 2/3 IP in taking the loss, while relievers Wissaroot Sihamat and Chanatip Thongbai combine for four shutout innings. Indonesia wins with a balanced offense. RF/3B Andospa Aldo Saputra gets 3 hits and 1B Adi Susanto has 2 runs and 2 RBI. DH Suratit Faengsup drives in 4 for Thailand while SS Phoomwut Wutthikorn scores three.
•  South Korea 10,  People's Republic of China 1. Gi-yeong Im defeats Haicheng Gong as South Korea keeps up its winning ways. 2B Min-woo Park and RF Ah-seop Son each have 3 hits, while 1B Byung-ho Park drives in three.
•  Japan 5,  Chinese Taipei 0. Japan moves to the Gold Medal Game as Yiochiro Okano and Yudai Aranishi combine on a 7-hit, 10-K shutout. 1B Tsuyoshi Tamura has two hits, including a homer. Hua-Ching Lin takes the loss, while RF Tzu-Hsien Chan has two hits for Taiwan.

September 1

• Gold Medal Game:  South Korea 3,  Japan 0. 3B Shoji Kitamura had a one-out single in the first off Hyeon-jong Yang and LF Kohei Sasagawa drew a two-out walk. but South Korea allowed no more hits or walks. The only other Japanese players to reach were on errors by 2B Chi-hong An. Yang, Pil-joon Jang (2 IP) and Woo-ram Jung (1 IP) completed the one-hit gem to give South Korea a three-peat. They got almost all their offense in the first. CF Jung-hoo Lee and SS Ha-seong Kim drew walks from Ryoga Tomiyama. DH Jae-hwan Kim singled to load the bases. Tomiyama retired 1B Byung-ho Park, but An delivered a two-run single to left. Park homered to center off Makoto Hori in the 3rd. Japan held South Korea to one hit the rest of the way but their offense failed to bring them back.
• Bronze Medal Game:  Chinese Taipei 10,  People's Republic of China 0. After a 1-0 win over China two days prior, Taiwan wins it going away for the Bronze. LF Ju-Liang Tai scores four runs from the leadoff spot while veteran DH Han Lin drives in three. Tsung-Hao Wang, Yu-Pu Wang and Bo-Hao Chen combine on a two-hit shutout; only DH Shunyi Yang and 1B Fujia Chu get hits for China, and Yang draws their lone walk. Weiqiang Meng takes the loss.

Standings

1.  South Korea
2.  Japan
3.  Chinese Taipei
4.  People's Republic of China
5.  Pakistan
6.  Hong Kong
7.  Indonesia
8.  Thailand
9.  Sri Lanka
10.  Laos