Japan defeated the United States 3-2 on Tuesday, remained undefeated, and became the champion of the V Classic Baseball World Cup in the final held at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
Ten years ago, the Dominican Republic won the Classic in an undefeated manner, and on Tuesday, the Japanese team achieved the same feat, finishing this edition with a record of 7-0.
The Japanese team became champions in the first two editions of the Classic World Cup in 2006 and 2009. The United States became champions in the last edition, held in 2017.
Japan proved to have a great team by finishing as the leader in runs in the tournament and, in addition, among the eight teams that advanced to the quarterfinals, they conceded the fewest number of runs.
In the sudden death round, the United States' bats made 38 hits, including eight home runs and a total of twelve extra bases, and scored 25 runs. But today, despite having nine hits, they were not effective.
The final match of the V Classic Baseball World Cup started with a 25-minute delay due to the closing ceremony. Japan started on the mound with left-handed pitcher Shota Imanaga, while Merrill Kelly, from the MLB's D-backs, pitched for Team USA.
Trea Turner, the American star of this Classic, began to inspire his team when he hit a home run in the second inning, his fifth home run in the tournament, making it 1-0 against Imanaga.
The Team USA offense activated, and J.T. Realmuto and Tim Anderson hit singles off a struggling Imanaga, but he regained control of the game afterwards.
And Japan also showed its strength. Munetaka Murakami hit a home run off Kelly, tying the game 1-1 in the second inning with a fly ball between the right and center fields.
Now it was Kelly who struggled on the mound when Kazuma Okamoto and Sosuke Genda hit singles, loading the bases. In addition, he walked Yuhei Nakamura.
With the bases loaded, Manager Mark DeRosa made a pitching change: Aaron Loup replaced Kelly, who left the game after two innings.
Lars Nootbaar hit a ground ball out against Loup, but Okamoto managed to score the second run, giving Japan the lead.
Manager Hideki Kuriyama followed DeRosa's example and sent Shosei Togo to the mound to replace Imanaga in the third inning.
Togo struck out Trout, got Paul Goldschmidt out, but walked Nolan Arenado and Kyle Schwarber. It was Turner's turn, but Togo struck him out.
In the fourth inning, Japan's bats struck again. Kazuma Okamoto hit a solo home run off Kyle Freeland, making it 3-1 on the scoreboard.
But the United States wasn't going to give up easily.
In the eighth inning, Schwarber, who had been quiet, hit a home run that brought the score to 3-2 and gave hope to DeRosa's troops.
However, the last out came against the relief of the star Shohei Ohtani, who went 3-1 with a walk in the game, and the tying run eluded Team USA, which failed in its mission to win the trophy for the second consecutive time.
Meanwhile, Japan, the gold medalist in the previous Olympic Games, began the celebration on the field of their third invincible title and confirmed their dominance in the World Classic by winning three of the five editions of the tournament.
EFE.