Korean men’s baseball team shuts down Hong Kong 13-0 for early curtain at Asian Games

Korea shut down Hong Kong 13-0 in the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Tuesday as its pitchers combined for a perfect game in a rout that ended after seven innings on the mercy rule.

Cho Hyeong-woo smoked a grand slam, and Roh Si-hwan launched a two-run home run in Korea's second straight Group B win at Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Toyohashi, southeast of the main host city, Nagoya.

Starter Choi Min-seok and five other pitchers combined for a perfect game and struck out 12 batters.

Korea, made up of stars from the KBO, is trying to win its fifth straight baseball gold medal. The quest began with a 5-0 win over Chinese Taipei on Monday, and the team will next face Thailand on Wednesday.

The top two teams from each of the two groups will compete in the Super Round. The two best teams from the Super Round will clash in the gold medal game in Toyohashi on Saturday.

Roh fired the opening salvo on Tuesday with a two-run bomb in the top of the first, and Korea scored in each of the first three frames, with Cho's slam coming in the third inning.

Korea tacked on three runs on hits by Kim Ji-chan and Yoon Dong-hee, and added three more runs in the seventh.

According to the KBO, this was the first perfect game thrown by the national team since it began keeping records in 2002.

Yonhap