Two-position star Ohtani leads Japan to win

Angels standout delivers at plate, on mound against China.

Shohei Ohtani hit a two-run double off the left-field wall, allowed one hit over four innings and got the win, leading Japan over China 8-1 on Thursday night in its opener at the World Baseball Classic.

The Los Angeles Angels twoway star struck out five and walked none in the Group B game at the Tokyo Dome. His fourth-inning double off Weiyi Wang gave Japan a 3-0 lead.

Ohtani retired his first 10 batters before Weiyi Wang’s single in the fourth. Ohtani threw 32 of 49 pitches for strikes.

In the other Group B game, Robbie Perkins and Robert Glendinning hit three-run homers to lead Australia over South Korea 8-7. In Group A, Xander Bogaerts and Jurickson Profar homered as the Netherlands beat Panama 3-1, and Italy beat Cuba 6-3 behind Nicky Lopez’s two-run single that capped a four-run 10th inning.

Before a crowd of 41,616 in the Tokyo Dome, Japan went ahead in the first when the St. Louis Cardinals’ Lars Nootbar singled leading off and loser Xiang Wang walked three straight, including two-time Central League MVP Munetaka Murakami with the bases loaded.

Nootbar made a sprawling catch in center on Jinjun Luo in the second.

Pei Liang cut the gap to 3-1 with a sixth-inning homer off Shosei Togo, but Shugo Maki homered in the seventh against Changlong Su and Takuya Kai capped a four-run eighth with a two-run double after Tetsuto Yamada hit an RBI single and Sosuke Genda walked with the bases loaded.

Japan, the 2006 and 2009 champion, plays South Korea today while China takes on the Czech Republic.

NETHERLANDS 3, PANAMA 1:

The Netherlands, after beating Cuba in the opener, won its second game in two days in Taichung, Taiwan. Bogaerts homered in the third

off loser Jaime Barría, and Profar went deep in the fifth against Alberto Guerrero.

Erasmo Caballero’s RBI single in sixth against Mike Bolsenbroek pulled Panama to 2-1, but Bogaerts doubled in the eighth and scored on a Alberto Baldonado’s wild pitch.

Winner Shairon Martis allowed

three hits in 3⅓ scoreless innings.

ITALY6,CUBA3,10INNINGS: Brett Sullivan hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the sixth off Naykel Cruz, and Miles Mastrobuoni added an RBI double in the seventh against Liván Moinelo.

Lorenzo Quintana pulled Cuba to 2-1 in the bottom half with an RBI single against Vinny Nittoli,

and Erisbel Arruebarrena hit a tying single in the eighth off winner Matt Festa that drove in Alfredo Despaigne.

John Valente hit a tiebreaking single in the 10th off loser Raidel Martínez.

Italy is 1-0 and faces winless Taiwan today. Cuba (0-2) plays Panama.

EUGENE HOSHIKO/ASSOCIATED PRESS Shohei Ohtani of Japan hits a double in the fourth inning of a Pool B game against China at the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo on Thursday. Ohtani also struck out five in four scoreless innings.