World Baseball Classic: Japan 7, Australia 1
The Aussies entered this game with a chance to clinch advancement with a victory. The only problem was they were playing Japan, so forget it.
The powerhouse Group B hosts did what they’ve done the entire Group stage, steamroll the unfortunate opponent.
For its four games to date, the Japanese have run up a 38-8 run differential.
The offensive star this time was catcher Yuhei Nakamura, who plays in the Japanese major league. He had three of his team’s nine base hits, scoring once and driving in a run.
Shohei Ohtani limited his impact to a first-inning three-run home run that followed a walk to Lars Nootbaar and a Kensuke Kondoh base hit.
Nootbaar and Kondoh both hit safely to drive home second inning runs and giving Japan a 5-0 advantage before five outs had been recorded.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto started and gave Japan four one-hit innings, striking out eight Australian opponents. Four Japanese pitchers recorded 13 strikeouts for the game.
Red Sox free agent signee Masataka Yoshida had his first off night, not that his efforts were needed. Yoshida was hitless in four tries, although that game-long slump merely lowered Yoshida’s tournament batting average to .417.
Cardinal outfielder Nootbaar was one-for-three, scoring twice and driving in one run. Nootbaar is batting .429, although that’s only third on the team behind Ohtani (.500) and Kondoh (.467).