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United States vs Japan
The World Baseball Classic, the biggest stage in baseball alongside the World Series concluded on Tuesday night at loanDepot Park in Miami, Florida.
The United States who entered the championship game as the defending champions as well as the "dream team" faced off against Japan who has won this tournament twice in 2006 and 2009.
Merrill Kelly got the start for the Americans facing off against Shota Imanaga for the Japanese.
It was a scoreless first inning until Trea Turner homered to give the Americans the 1-0 lead. The Japanese had an answer right away in the bottom of the second with Murakami homering to make it a 1-1 ballgame. Nootbaar would ground out to first scoring Okamoto to give the Japanese the 2-1 lead with Nakamura heading to second and Genda to third.
In the 4th it would be the Japanese striking again with Okamoto homering to extend the lead to 3-1. The American offense was silenced by the dominant Japanese pitching.
Some life and hope was brought back into loanDepot Park in the 8th inning with Kyle Schwarber homering to make it a 3-2 game to raise the drama. Devin Williams was able to get three outs with a runner on second sending it to the 9th for the Americans final chance.
Japan would bring in Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani to get the final three outs. Ohtani would first walk the leadoff batter Jeff McNeil. This would make way for Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts who would hit into a double play giving Japan one more out left. This would set up the matchup everyone was dying to see, Shohei Ohtani vs Mike Trout. The two are currently teammates on the Angels. Ohtani was throwing heat up to 103 mph and would strike out Trout on a nasty slider.
The strikeout would give Japan the country's third World Baseball Classic title as well as Shohei Ohtani being named the MVP. This leaves the question if the rest of the world has caught up with the MLB.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has announced that the World Baseball Classic will return.
Written by: Daniel Torres
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