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 putting out 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 additionally named WBC MVP for his efforts.
Japan, which additionally prevailed in 2006 and 2009, leads all nations with three WBC titles. Japan went 7-0 on this event, 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 event because the reigning champion by advantage of its 2017 title.
Turner, who went 2-for-4 on Tuesday, hit 5 homers in the course of the United States’ WBC run. Betts went 2-for-5 for the Americans.
USA 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 obtained the 2 batters he confronted within the second, however Lars Nootbaar’s mushy 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.
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 lower the USA deficit to 3-2 after a powerful at-bat towards Yu Darvish. After working the rely to 2-1, Schwarber fouled off six straight pitches earlier than getting maintain of a splitter and hammering it 436 ft to right-center area 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.
–Walter Villa, Field Level Media