Dodgers 4, South Korea 2

Chin-lung Hu came up with a big two-out, bases-loaded single in the bottom of the eighth to mercifully bring closure to this agonizing affair that included 11 walks and three hit batters and lasted three hours, 12 minutes. … Hong-Chih Kuo came out of his first appearance fine, coming in to start the eighth inning and retiring the first two batters but then giving up a single and hitting a batter to end his day. He complained afterward that his fastball was cutting in toward RH hitters, something he blamed on a mechanical issue of flying open too quickly. But the important thing was that he felt fine physically. … Orlando Hudson had two hits, both singles. … The Dodgers had three successful sacrifices. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that your humble correspondent is adamantly opposed to the sacrifice bunt on general principle. I hope this doesn’t mean Joe Torre plans to use it a lot this year. … The Korean roster featured eight guys whose last name was Lee and two guys whose last name was Park. The five guys who pitched for Korea had the following last names: Jang, Jong, Chong, Im and Lim. There was one major leaguer, Cleveland’s Shin-Soo Choo, and I believe one former major leaguer in Jungkeun Bong, who last pitched for Cincinnati in 2004. But I have to admit I’m not 100 percent certain that it’s the same guy. He didn’t appear in this game. … Manny will DH against the Rangers tomorrow. Joe Torre said if he can’t convince the Brewers to use the DH in Saturday’s game, Manny probably will play in that morning’s B game against the White Sox. … The Dodgers would have improved to 8-6 if this game counted in the Cactus League, but it doesn’t, so they didn’t.