Japan's Ohtani strikes out Trout to seal World Baseball Classic win
Send a link to a friend
[March 22, 2023]
(Reuters) -Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout in a showdown
between two of the game's best players to seal Japan's 3-2 victory
over the United States in a riveting World Baseball Classic (WBC)
final at Miami's LoanDepot Park on Tuesday.
Baseball is the United States' national pastime but Japan's win over
the defending WBC champions means they have won three of five
editions of the global showcase.
They were a perfect 7-0 through this year's edition.
The contest ended in a duel that is likely to go down in baseball
folklore as Ohtani, the hitting and pitching sensation from Japan,
faced off against his Los Angeles Angels team mate and U.S. captain
Trout.
"Whether I got him out or he got a hit off of me, I didn't want to
have any regrets," said Ohtani through an interpreter. "I wanted to
make my best pitch.
"This is a different experience, representing your country and
facing guys representing their country. It was a different intensity
and it was great."
Carrying their nation's flags, the two men had led their respective
teams onto the field and then at the climax, in a moment of pure
sporting magic, stood across from each other with everything on the
line.
With Japan clinging to a 3-2 ninth inning lead they turned to their
ace Ohtani.
He walked the first batter he faced in Jeff McNeil but then got
Mookie Betts to hit into a double play, bringing up Trout with two
out and the sellout crowd on its feet.
Throwing 100 mph fastballs Ohtani struck out his Angels team mate on
six pitches to trigger celebrations as the Japan team poured out of
the dugout.
OHTANI THE 'UNICORN'
Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama said the win could have a big impact
on the sport's popularity back home.
"... all the kids in Japan who are watching that might think, 'Oh,
that's really cool', and they might want to make up their mind to
want to be baseball players".
U.S. manager Mark DeRosa said it had been a storybook ending for the
baseball world but that he had hoped "it would end a little bit
different with Mike popping one".
"The whole world got to see Ohtani come in, big spot, battling. It's
kind of how it was kind of scripted," he told reporters.
[to top of second column] |
Mar 21, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Team
Japan celebrates after winning the game against the USA at LoanDepot
Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
He also heaped praise on Ohtani, saying, "no
moment's too big for him".
"What he's doing in the game is what probably 90% of the guys in
that clubhouse did in Little League or in youth tournaments, and
he's able to pull it off on the biggest stages. He is a unicorn to
the sport."
Ohtani was named the WBC's Most Valuable Player after posting the
best statistics over the entire tournament.
U.S. shortstop Trea Turner provided the early fireworks with a
second inning solo shot, taking Shota Imanaga into the left field
bleachers for his fifth home run of the WBC to give the U.S. a 1-0
lead.
Japan answered right back in the bottom of the inning, slugger
Munetaka Murakami, who drove in the two runs in Japan's walkoff
semi-final win over Mexico, slamming a home run to deep center off
Merrill Kelly.
After Kelly loaded the bases DeRosa had seen enough, making the
switch to Aaron Loup, who would get them out of the inning but not
before Lars Nootbaar grounded out to first to score Kazuma Okamoto
with the go-ahead run.
Okamoto added to Japan's lead with a home run to lead off the bottom
of the fourth.
And Japan had a huge opportunity to put the contest out of reach in
the sixth when Jason Adams walked three to load the bases, but
Nootbaar flied out meekly to right to end the threat.
With the U.S. running out of innings Kyle Schwarber, the National
League's home run champion, slammed a monster homer off Yu Darvish
in the eighth, taking him into the upper deck to trim Japan's lead
to 3-2.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Additional reporting by Rory
Carroll and Aadi Nair. Editing by Peter Rutherford)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|