MIAMI — Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto homered as Japan received the World Baseball Classic, defeating the United States 3-2 on Tuesday evening.
Two-way celebrity Shohei Ohtani earned the save with a scoreless ninth inning, getting Mookie Betts to bounce right into a double play earlier than placing out LosAngeles Angels teammate Mike Trout.
Immediately after the strikeout, Ohtani tossed his glove and his cap apart earlier than celebrating along with his teammates. Ohtani was named WBC MVP for his efforts.
“It was great,” Ohtani mentioned of his WBC expertise. “There’s a different intensity representing your country and facing guys who represent their countries.”
Japan, which additionally prevailed in 2006 and 2009, leads all nations with three WBC titles. Japan went 7-0 on this match, becoming a member of the 2013 Dominican Republic squad as the one unbeaten groups in WBC historical past.
Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber homered for Team USA, which entered this match because the reigning champion by advantage of its 2017 title. The occasion wasn’t held in 2020 as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
Turner, who went 2-for-4 on Tuesday, hit 5 homers through the United States’ WBC run. Betts went 2-for-5 for the Americans within the remaining.
U.S. supervisor Mark DeRosa mentioned, “The baseball world won tonight. Although our guys are disappointed, I couldn’t be prouder of them, the way they came together as a team. They truly started to bond and enjoy being around each other.”
The United States opened the scoring within the second inning as Turner slugged a 406-foot solo homer to left off a Shota Imanaga fastball.
Murakami tied the rating on the primary pitch of the second inning, blasting a 432-foot shot off a Merrill Kelly fastball.
Japan took a 2-1 lead later within the inning, knocking Kelly out of the sport after loading the bases with one out. Reliever Aaron Loup retired the 2 batters he confronted within the body, however Lars Nootbaar’s delicate groundout introduced house the go-ahead run.
Okamoto’s 407-foot homer off a Kyle Freeland slider gave Japan a 3-1 lead within the fourth.
Team USA began nicely within the seventh as pinch hitter Jeff McNeil drew a four-pitch stroll towards Taisei Ota and Betts singled to left. However, Trout lined out to proper, and Paul Goldschmidt bounced right into a double play to finish the risk.
Schwarber reduce the USA’s deficit to 3-2 after a robust at-bat towards Yu Darvish. After working the depend to 2-1, Schwarber fouled off six consecutive pitches earlier than getting maintain of a splitter and hammering it 436 ft to right-center subject to attract the Americans nearer.
In the ninth, McNeil drew a leadoff stroll towards Ohtani. Betts’ double-play grounder then set the stage for the epic Ohtani-Trout matchup.
Ohtani received the duel, getting Trout on a 3-2 sweeping breaking ball that tailed away from him.
“Whether I got him out or he got a hit off me, I didn’t want to take any risks,” Ohtani mentioned of going through Trout. “I wanted to make my best pitch.”
DeRosa mentioned, “If you were going to write a script, I was hoping it would go our way with Mikey (Trout) popping one against Ohtani. But this is real. The WBC is real. The whole world got to see Ohtani come in — big spot, battling. That’s kind of how it was scripted. I just wish it would have gone differently.”
–Walter Villa, Field Level Media