Canada thumps its way to win in WBC opener
PHOENIX Tyler O’Neill had four hits and four RBIs, Freddie Freeman added two hits and Canada beat Great Britain 18-8.
The game lasted just seven innings because the World Baseball Classic has a mercy rule during pool play. If one team is leading by 10 or more runs after an inning following the seventh, the game is over.
Canada scored in every inning, including five runs in the first, four in the third and six more in the fourth.
Great Britain took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but had a tough afternoon on the pitcher’s mound, giving up 17 hits and 16 walks. Harry Ford had one of Britain’s highlights with a three-run homer.
Akeel Morris took the loss, giving up five runs in just 2⁄3 of an inning. Phillippe Aumont got the win.
Japan 7, Australia 1
TOKYO Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer that landed just below his image on a video advertising board, sending Japan to a 7-1 victory over Australia on Sunday night.
Ohtani also walked twice and finished with four RBIs. His first-inning drive travelled an estimated 448 feet.
Japan won Group B with a 4-0 record and will play a quarterfinal Thursday against Italy, which advanced along with Cuba from Group A on tiebreakers. Matt Harvey got the win as Italy defeated the Netherlands 7-1, causing all five teams to finish 2-2.
Ohtani turned on a hanging curveball from Will Sherriff, who didn’t even watch the flight of the ball into the Tokyo Dome’s rightfield seats, bending and putting hands on his knees. It was the first home run of the tournament for Ohtani, who is 6 for 12 with eight RBIs and seven walks.
Winner Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out eight in four scoreless innings, allowing one hit and no walks. He threw 42 of 60 pitches for strikes, averaging 95.2 mph with his fastball and topping out at 96.9 mph. The 24-year-old right-hander was the Pacific League’s MVP for the Orix Buffaloes in 2021 and 2022, and pitched a no-hitter last June 22 against the Saitama Seibu Lions.
Israel 3, Nicaragua 1
MIAMI Garrett Stubbs hit a tworun double in a three-run eighth inning, helping Israel rally for the win in its opener.
Stubbs had two of Israel’s seven hits. His bases-loaded double off New York Yankees reliever Jonathan Loáisiga drove in Spencer Horwitz and Noah Mendlinger with two out in the eighth. Horwitz, a Toronto Blue Jays prospect, tied it earlier in the inning with an RBI single.
Winner Richard Bleier had two strikeouts in one relief inning.
Nicaragua took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Steven Leyton’s double scored Sandy Bermudez. But it dropped to 0-2 in pool play.