World Baseball Classic: Chang carries Chinese Taipei to an ambush win
By Bill Felber
World Baseball Classic: Japan 10, Czech Republic 2
The hosts improved their record to 3-0 and their run differential to an imposing 31-5 with another one-sided victory in Tokyo.
The Czechs actually held a brief lead in this game, scoring in the top of the first when Takumo Nakano’s throwing error allowed Marek Chlup, who had doubled, to touch home plate.
It marked only the second time in the tournament that Japan had trailed, and the hosts did not take the insult lightly. In the third, three hits and a walk produced three runs. One inning later, two more walks and three hits (one of them a Shohei Ohtani double) generated four more runs and removed any doubt as to the eventual outcome.
It was Ohtani’s only hit and only RBI of the day, although any heroics on his part would have been superfluous. The Japanese offense produced 11 hits on the evening, that total supplemented by nine bases on balls from six Czech pitchers.
Outfielder Masataka Yoshida, the Boston Red Sox winter free agent signee, produced three of those 11 hits, in the process driving in three runs and scoring once. Yoshida is hitting a lofty .625 to date in the tournament.
Roki Sasaki, the young star who gained renown last season by pitching 17 consecutive perfect innings, started and lasted into the fourth. He allowed two hits and that one unearned run, striking out eight of the 10 batters he retired.