Japan stuns Team USA baseball in 10 innings
Yuki Yanagita tied it with an RBI grounder off Scott McGough in the ninth inning, Takuya Kai hit a winning single against Edwin Jackson in the 10th and Japan beat the United States 7-6 Monday night to reach the Olympic semifinals.
Japan overcame a 6-5, ninth-inning deficit against McGough, a 31-year-old former Miami Marlins reliever with 16 saves in his third season with the Central League’s Yakult Swallows. He walked Seiya Suzuki with one out as rain started to fall, then allowed a single to Hideto Asamura that put runners at the corners.
Yanagita hit a chopper to second, driving in a run on the groundout.
Under tournament rules, extra innings start with runners on first and second, an even more extreme distortion than the Major League Baseball runneron-second rule used since the start of the 2020 pandemic season.
Ryoji Kuribayashi (1-0) retired the side in order in the top half, and Jackson (0-1), a 37-year-old veteran of a record 14 major league teams, relieved in the bottom of the inning.
Pinch-hitter Ryoya Kurihara sacrificed, manager Mike Scioscia went to the mound and the U.S. went to a five-man infield.
Kai, who had entered as a defensive replaced, lined the next pitch off the rightfield wall.
Japan (3-0) will play South Korea (3-1) on Wednesday night for a spot in the final.
The U.S. (2-1) fell into the losers’ bracket of the doubleelimination second round. To reach this weekend’s final, it must beat the winner of today’s elimination game between the Dominican Republic (1-2) and Israel (1-3), and then the Japan-South Korea loser.
BEACH VOLLEYBALL Gibb leaving Olympics after fourth trip
Jake Gibb lingered on the sand at the Shiokaze Park beach volleyball court to say goodbye after his fourth trip to the Olympics came to an end.
To his temporary teammate, Tri Bourne.
And to international competition, for good.
“I was just enjoying the moment, and I was just enjoying that stadium, the energy — just kind of taking it in one last time,” Gibb said on Monday night after he and Bourne were eliminated with a loss to Germany in the round of 16. “I was just, I guess, letting it go, in a way.”
One day after 2008 gold medalist Phil Dalhausser announced that he was retiring, the 45-year-old Gibb said he would join his fellow four-time Olympian on the sidelines.
“I’m done,” Gibb said. “I’m going to go home and play some AVP tournaments. I’m going to go coach my kids’ soccer games.”
GYMNASTICS Carey wins gold in floor execise for U.S.
Jade Carey traveled the world for a spot in the Olympics. Germany. Qatar. Azerbaijan. Australia.
A lot of long flights. A little bit of jet lag. One unrelenting vision of what could be possible.
She wasn’t going to let a little thing like a sticky patch of carpet get in her way.
The 21-year-old American gymnast soared to gold in the women’s floor exercise Monday night, her powerful and precise routine capping a rollercoaster 24 hours in which she narrowly avoided serious injury during the vault finals when her right foot caught just as she was preparing her entry.
Carey’s score of 14.366 gave the U.S. women’s team its fifth medal of the Games and assured that each of the six athletes who came to Tokyo — Carey, Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum and MyKayla Skinner — will be checking some serious bling in customs when they return home.
TRACK AND FIELD IOC looking into apparent protest
The International Olympic Committee is looking into the gesture U.S. athlete Raven Saunders made after the shot put silver medallist raised her arms in an X above her head, a potential breach of rules banning protests on medal podiums.
The IOC is in contact with World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference on Monday.
The USOPC said Saunders’ gesture did not breach its rules.
Her gesture was intended to support the downtrodden, she indicated.
“It’s the intersection of where all people who are oppressed meet,” Saunders said
WEIGHTLIFTING Transgender Hubbard competes in Tokyo
Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard finally got to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
It didn’t last long, but it was significant. Hubbard couldn’t complete any of her first three lifts on Monday night, ruling her out of medal contention in the women’s over-87-kilogram division.
Hubbard made a heart gesture to the audience with her hands before leaving the competition arena.