World Baseball Classic: Japan shines, Cuba stumbles

The team known as Samurai Japan gave the rest of the World Baseball Classic field something  to worry about Thursday with a convincing showing against China on its home field.

Team Japan makes a statement in World Baseball Classic

The 8-1 final was never really in doubt. St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar singled to start the game, and China starter Xiang Wang walked the next three hitters for a quick 1-0 lead.

That was almost, although not literally, all the Japanese needed, especially with Shohei Ohtani as the starter. Ohtani doubled and singled in addition to drawing one of those three walks, and pitched four one-hit innings, striking out five.

Ohtani and his three successors on the mound for Japan combined to allow just three base hits and one walk, striking out a combined 17 Chinese hitters.

The home team built on that early 1-0  advantage gradually and inexorably. In the fourth, Nootbaar singled and came home on Ohtani’s double to left.

Ohtani’s eighth-inning base hit started a four-run Japan rally that removed the game from the realm of “close.” Four walks, a single and a double later, Japan had its final 8-1 margin.

This was not a dominant performance by the Japanese lineup, which generated a credible but not gaudy nine base hits. But the hosts received a massive amount of foreign aid from China pitchers, who walked a prodigious 16 opponents.

Wang, the China starter, walked six of the 13 batters he faced in 1.2 innings, striking out nobody.

China also made the game’s only two fielding errors.

World Baseball Classic: Italy 4, Cuba 2

While the Japanese club solidified its image as Group favorites, the same decidedly cannot be said of Cuba, a favorite to advance out of the Chinese Taipei bracket.

For the second consecutive day, the Cubans were upset, this time by Italy in a 6-3 extra-inning game.

The defeat came on the heels of Cuba’s lackluster showing in a 4-2 loss to Netherlands in the Wednesday tournament opener.

Three 10th-inning base hits broke the 2-2 tie in regulation and gave Italy an inside track at being one of the two teams that will advance out of the Taipei Group.

Cuba made a final desperation run at a comeback when Luis Robert’s 10th-inning single drove in Yoelkis Guibert, who started the inning at second base. That, however, was the extent of the Cuban comeback.

The underdog Italians got a big boost when starter Matt Harvey delivered three scoreless innings, allowing just two hits. Italy broke the scoreless deadlock with three sixth-inning singles capped by Brett Sullivan’s sacrifice fly. Miles Mastrobuoni’s seventh-inning double made it 2-0.

Cuba’s hopes rose briefly when Erisbel Arrubarrena singled home Alfredo Despaigne to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth.

The Cuban offense generated only seven hits. Their top two stars (White Sox regulars Yoan Moncada and Robert) produced just Robert’s 10th-inning single one single in 10 plate appearances Thursday.

World Baseball Classic: Australia 8, South Korea 7

Late three-run home runs by a pair of relative unknowns lifted underdog Australia to an 8-7 victory over South Korea Thursday in Tokyo.

The Aussies trailed 4-2 in the seventh inning when Kansas City Royals farmhand Robbie Glendinning lifted a fly ball into the left field seats at the Tokyo Dome.

One inning later, with Australia holding its 5-4 lead, catcher Robbie Perkins (who plays in Australia) replicated Glendinning’s shot of one inning earlier. That stretched the Aussie advantage to 8-4, and enabled them to survive South Korea’s three-run rally in the bottom half of the same inning.

That gave Australia an edge in what turned out to be a battle of three-run home runs. Catcher Euiji Yang hit one for Korea in the fifth inning to give his team a temporary 3-2 advantage. Yang also singled in the losing cause.

The outcome was surprising because the Koreans fielded a lineup that would be more familiar to Major League fans. It included St. Louis Cardinals infielder Tommy Edman, San Diego Padres infielder Ha-Seong im, former Minnesota Twins hitter ByongHo Park, and former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim.

The only recent major leaguer in the Australia lineup was Phillies outfield prospect Aaron Whitefield.

World Baseball Classic: Looking ahead

Having already defeated Cuba Wednesday, Netherlands will rest on its laurels Friday in anticipation of a Saturday opportunity to wrap up an advance to the next round against the winless hosts.

The Czech Republic opens its portion of the tournament Thursday night (Friday afternoon in Asia) against China at Tokyo Dome. At about the same time, Cuba will play for a third straight day against Panama, both teams trying to salvage their tournament status.

The favorites from Japan attempt to build on their opening success playing Korea, which will be in desperation mode following its upset loss to Australia. Italy will take the field a third time early Friday our time – late Friday in Taiwan – against the hosts from Chinese Taipei.

Tournament play will hit full steam on Saturday (see the schedule here) when play opens in the two Western Hemisphere-based brackets. The U.S. team will be among clubs making their debut Saturday, facing Great Britain at Chase Field in Phoenix.

Through Thursday games, Japan and Australia lead the Tokyo bracket 1-0, with China and Korea 0-1.

In Taipei, Netherlands is 2-0 and Italy 1-0. Panama sits at 1-1, Taipei 0-1 and Cuba 0-2.