JAPAN’S OHTANI LEADING THE WAY
Japan manager Kideki Kuriyama still gets a special tingle watching Shohei Ohtani. It’s been that way since Kuriyama managed the two-way star with the Hokkaido Ham-Fighters.
“When we see Shohei playing, not only the players but also the Japanese baseball fans, all the nation is feeling something extra,” Kuriyama said through a translator after Ohtani led Japan over Italy 9-3 on Thursday night to put the Samurai Warriors in their fifth straight World Baseball Classis semifinal.
Ohtani pitched shutout ball into the fifth inning and sparked a four-run third with a bunt single.
“These kind of moments, this is how I feel the sense of Ohtani,” Kuriyama said. “... When he plays a must-win game like tonight, we see who Shohei is.”
Boston’s Masataka Yoshida homered and drove in the go-ahead run with a grounder, giving him a tournament-leading 10 RBIs. Kazuma Okamoto hit a three-run homer for Japan, which has outscored opponents 47-11 in five games and is batting .313.
Japan travels to Miami for a semifinal on Monday against Puerto Rico or Mexico. Cuba plays the other semifinal against the United States or Venezuela.
Pitching before an adoring crowd of 41,723 at the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani threw his fastest pitch since he joined the Angels in 2018, striking out Vinnie Pasquantino on a 102 mph fastball in the second.
Ohtani (2-0) allowed two runs and four hits in 42⁄3 innings with five strikeouts and a walk and went 1-for-4 with a walk at the plate. He is hitting .438 (7-for-16) with a home run, three doubles and eight RBIs along with a 2.08 ERA, 10 strikeouts and one walk on the mound. Ohtani would be available on four days’ rest to pitch in a possible final on Tuesday — 41⁄2 days, counting the time difference.
Ohtani stretched his tournament scoreless streak to 82⁄3 innings before the fifth, when Dominic Fletcher hit a soft basesloaded single into right with two outs on Ohtani’s 71st and final pitch — nine short of the limit. Ohtani had hit Ben DeLuzio with a pitch with one out, allowed a single to David Fletcher, retired Sal Frelick on a flyout and hit Nicky Lopez with a pitch.
“In the fourth and fifth innings I struggled a bit, but until then I had good rhythm and I pitched well, I think,” Ohtani said.
Hiromi Itoh relieved and retired Miles Mastrobuoni on a flyout as Yoshida slammed into the left field wall while making the catch.
Japan is the only nation to reach the sems of all five WBCs, winning the first two tourneys in 2006 and ’09. It was knocked out by Puerto Rico in ’13 and the U.S. in ’17.