Tokyo: Japan destroyed Chinese Taipei 13-0 to open its title defense at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) at home Friday, powered by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani's big night at the plate. Ohtani crushed a grand slam and drove in five runs as part of a 10-run second inning at Tokyo Dome, as Japan handily claimed its first game of Pool C. The game ended after seven innings on a mercy rule.
According to Yonhap News Agency, this is the sixth iteration of the tournament and Japan has won three titles so far -- 2006, 2009, and 2023. Japan will next face South Korea at 7 p.m. Saturday at the dome. South Korea opened the tournament with an 11-4 victory over Czechia on Thursday and did not play Friday. With two straight losses, Chinese Taipei has dug itself a big hole with games against Czechia and South Korea coming up on Saturday and Sunday. The top two teams at the end of the opening round will advance to the quarterfinals next week.
Ohtani led off the game by turning on a first-pitch fastball from starter Cheng Hao-Chun for a ringing double, though he was ultimately stranded. But Japan got down to business in the second inning, putting up a 10-spot on seven hits, four walks, and a hit-by-pitch. Ohtani fired the opening salvo with his grand slam to right field for a 4-0 lead. At 2-1 count, Ohtani pulled a low-and-away curveball and sent it 368 feet into the seats in right field. A triple by Masataka Yoshida made it a 5-0 game, and the full rout was on.
Singles by Munetaka Murakami, Sosuke Genda, and Kenya Wakatsuki added four runs for Japan. Ohtani came to the plate for the second time in the inning and knocked in his fifth run with a single. Japan went up by 13-0 in the third inning thanks to hits by Kazuma Okamoto and Genda. Chinese Taipei showed some life in the bottom third, loading the bases on two walks by starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto and a throwing error by Okamoto. But reliever Shoma Fujihira struck out Stuart Fairchild to keep Chinese Taipei off the board.
Chinese Taipei was held without a hit through five innings. They came close to erasing the zero off the board in the bottom fifth, when Fairchild pulled a towering fly to the left of the left-field foul pole to miss out on a three-run home run. Chinese Taipei finished with one hit and has had just four hits, all singles, through two games in the tournament so far. Ohtani ended the night with three hits and five RBIs and fell a triple shy of a cycle -- all the while sending a warning message to South Korea and the rest of Pool C.