Olympic Champions South Korea Crush Taiwan 9-0

The Koreans exploded for six runs in the first innings, highlighted by a grand-slam home run from Lee Jin-young.

Olympic champions South Korea began their quest to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) with a crushing 9-0 victory over Taiwan at Tokyo Dome on Friday.

The Koreans exploded for six runs in the first innings, highlighted by a grand-slam home run from Lee Jin-young in a game almost ended on the mercy rule in the seventh.

First baseman Kim Tae-kyun began the Pool A rout with a two-run single as last year's Beijing Olympic gold medallists quickly tore into Taiwan's starting pitcher Lee Chen-chang.

Lee was promptly yanked but the bleeding only temporarily stopped, Kim Hyun-soo adding a seventh run for Korea in the fifth before Jeong Keun-woo smashed a two-run homer in the sixth.

The Koreans had runners on second and third base in the seventh inning and only a sharp low catch from left fielder Pan Wu-hsiung prevented the game being called early.

South Korea will face Japan on Saturday after the reigning WBC title holders beat China 4-0 in Thursday's curtain raiser for the 16-team tournament. China play Taiwan earlier on Saturday.

The Koreans compiled a 6-1 record at the inaugural WBC tournament in 2006, beating Japan twice before losing to their fierce rivals in their third meeting in the semi-finals.

Japan won the competition with a 5-2 record, triggering protests from South Korea and beyond about the rules, which have since been amended. South Korea finished with bronze in 2006.

They gained revenge by beating Japan in the Olympic semi-finals last year before stunning Cuba in the final to take gold.