Hyunjin Ryu silences Canadian bats

South Korean left-hander Hyunjin Ryu tossed a complete-game five-hitter in a 1-0 win over Canada in men's Olympic baseball at Wukesong Baseball Field in Beijing on Friday.

The Canadians missed scoring chances in the sixth, eighth and ninth innings, leaving a combined six runners on base and eight overall.

"We just couldn't execute in key situations and it came back to bite us," said Terry Puhl, Canada's manager.

The loss was the second in as many days for Canada, which fell 7-6 to Cuba after blowing a 5-3 lead.

At 1-2, the Canadians will likely need to win three of their remaining four games to reach the final four, including an upset against either the United States on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET Friday) or Japan on Monday.

Canada would also need to prevail against the Netherlands on Tuesday and Taiwan in its preliminary-round finale Wednesday.

With the bases loaded in the ninth and two out Friday, Ryu got pinch-hitter Ryan Radmanovich to fly out to centre field to help the unbeaten South Koreans improve to 2-0 after they upset the top-ranked United States 8-7 in their opener.

Canadian right-fielder Michael Saunders singled to open the final inning and advanced to third on a one-out broken-bat single to right field by designated hitter Nick Weglarz.

Milwaukee Brewers 2008 draft pick Brett Lawrie then hit a fly ball to right, but Rob Ducey — Canada's third-base coach — elected to hold Saunders as Korean right-fielder Jinyoung Lee launched a bullet to home plate.

Ryu (1-0) kept Canada off balance for most of the game by hitting the corners and mixing his pitches. He struck out six and walked three.

Second baseman Keunwoo Jeong provided the lone run of the game in the third inning when he took Canadian starter Mike Johnson (0-1) over the fence in left-centre field.

"It's a tough one to swallow," said Johnson in a news release from Baseball Canada. "One pitch and the guy capitalized on it and, again, it turned out to be the difference."

Ryu also got some help from his defence in the third when centre-fielder Jongwook Lee stole a base hit from Adam Stern with a diving catch.

Pitches out of jam

Johnson, who pitched for Canada at the 2004 Games in Athens, settled down after Jeong's homer and a bases-loaded jam in the first inning. The right-hander exited after the sixth, having allowed three hits and four walks while fanning three.

"I just wanted to go deep into the ball game and give us a chance to win," said Johnson. "[Ryu] pitched really well, it was a really good head-to-head battle."

In the bottom of the sixth frame, Canadian shortstop Emmanuel Garcia led off with a single and moved to third base on a Stern bunt attempt followed by a Stubby Clapp groundout. After Saunders walked, Scott Thorman flied out to centre to end the threat.

With catcher Chris Robinson standing at second in the eighth inning, Ryu induced pinch-hitter Jimmy Vanostrand and Clapp to ground out.

Korea had a chance to build on its 1-0 lead in the seventh, but Canadian relief pitcher David Davidson tagged out Jinyoung Lee, who tried to score from third on a wild pitch.

In other action Friday, Cuba improved to 3-0 with a 5-4, 11-inning decision over the Americans (1-2).

Michel Enriquez singled home two runs and Pedro Lazo threw six innings of relief for the victory.

China edged Chinese Taipai 8-7 in 12 innings on the strength of Lingfeng Sun's three-hit performance.

Fenglian Hou, Fei Feng and Wei Wang added two hits apiece for the Chinese (1-1), who received five strong innings from pitcher Nan Wang (four hits, one earned run).

Counterpart Wei-Lun Pan was equally impressive, yielding four hits and striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings of work in Chinese Taipai's second straight loss (1-2).

Baseball's new extra-innings rule for international play got used for the first time Friday in those games. Beginning in the 11th inning, runners go to first and second and teams can start at any point in their batting order.

Japan (2-1) rode four first-inning runs and the pitching arm of Toshiya Sugiuchi to a 6-0 pasting of the Netherlands (0-3).

Sugiuchi, backed by a 10-hit attack, threw a tidy seven frames (four hits, six strikeouts) for his first win of the tournament.