Japan defeated the United States 2-3 on Tuesday to win the V World Baseball Classic undefeated and become a three-time champion in the final at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
10 years ago, the Dominican Republic won the Classic undefeated and this Tuesday, the Japanese team matched this achievement by closing this edition with a 7-0 record.
The Japanese were declared champions in the first two editions of the World Classic in 2006 and 2009. The United States did it in the latter, played in 2017.
Japan confirmed they had a great team by finishing the tournament leader in runs and also conceded the fewest goals of the eight teams that advanced to the quarter-finals.
In the Sudden Death round, the United States combined for 38 hits, with eight home runs and a total of twelve extra-base hits, producing 25 runs, but today, despite nine hits, they were ineffective.
The final match of the V World Classic started 25 minutes late due to the closing events.
Lefthander Shota Imanaga started on the mound for Japan, while Merrill Kelly, of the Major League Baseball D-backs, took the mound for Team USA.
Trea Turner, the American figure in this Classic, started to excite his team when he homered in the second inning, his fifth homer of the tournament, to make it 1-0 against Imanaga.
The Team USA offense began and JT Realmuto and Tim Anderson singled off Imanaga who struggled but then regained control of the game.
And Japan also showed its cards. Munetaka Murakami knocked it out of the park against Kelly and made it 1-1 in the second inning with a flyout to center right.
The one suffering on the mound now was Kelly when Kazuma Okamoto and Sosuke Genda hit him to take the first two bases. He also walked Yuhei Nakamura.
With the bases loaded, manager MarK DeRosa changed pitches: Aaron Loup came in for a Kelly who left the ranch burning in two innings.
Lars Nootbaar grounded to Loup, but Okamoto scored second and Japan took over.
Manager Hideki Kuriyama imitated DeRosa and started the third inning with a new pitch and sent Shosei Togo in for Imanaga.
Togo retired Trout, retired Paul Goldschmidt, but lost Nolan Arenado and Kyle Schwarber on a walk. It was Turner’s turn, but Togo complied by striking him out.
In the fourth episode, the Japanese bats returned to the attack. Kazuma Okamoto hit a solo home run off Kyle Freeland to make it 1-3.
But the United States would not give up so easily.
In the eighth inning, Schwarber, who had been silenced, hit a Bambinazo that made it 2-3 and restored confidence to DeRosa’s troops.
However, the final out came against the relief of star Shohei Ohtani, who went 1-for-3 with a walk in the game, and the tying run eluded Team USA as they failed to lift the trophy. queue.
As Japan, a gold medalist at the last Olympics, began celebrating on the diamond their third title undefeated, confirming their empire in the World Classic is stabbing and expanding by winning three of the five editions of the tournament. to win.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
