(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by WBSC & Rob Schuurman)
   Japan shuts out USA to win Olympic Baseball Gold; Dutch official in Final
Nederlands
  TOKYO / YOKOHAMA (Japan) -
Japan captured the Gold Medal in the Baseball-tournament of the Olympic Games by winning 2-0 against the USA on Saturday-evening (August 7) in Yokohama.
A week ago (July 27), the softball-team of Japan also won Gold by winning its Final against the USA with the same score, a 2-0 shutout.
...Japan celebrates winning the Gold Medal...
(© Photo: WBSC) |
It marked the first time that Japan won the Gold Medal in baseball.
Japan won Silver in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta (USA).
Cuba won Gold in 1992 (Barcelona, Spain), 1996 (Atlanta, USA) and 2004 (Athens, Greece).
The USA won the Final in 2000 (Sydney, Australia).
In the last Olympic baseball-tournament in 2008 (Beijing, China), South Korea defeated Cuba 3-2 in the Final.
Japan and the USA also faced each other in the Olympic Final in 1984 (Los Angeles, USA) and 1988 (Seoul, South Korea).
Japan won 6-3 in 1984 and the Americans won 5-3 in 1988.
Baseball was a demonstration sport in 1984 and 1988, as it was in 1904 (St. Louis, USA), 1912 (Stockholm, Sweden), 1936 (Berlin, Germany), 1952 (Helsinki, Finland), 1956 (Melbourne, Australia) and 1964 (Tokyo, Japan).
Baseball and Softball returned to the Olympic Games for the first time since 2008 when the multi-sports event was organized in Beijing (China).
Thereafter, Baseball and Softball were not part of the Olympics in 2012 (London, United Kingdom) and 2016 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
Earlier on Saturday, the Dominican Republic won 10-6 against defending Olympic champion South Korea to win the Bronze Medal.
With that, the Dominicans won their first-ever Olympic Baseball Medal.
In the Bronze Medal-game, the Dominican Republic struck early with four runs in the top of the first inning, three of them on back-to-back homeruns.
With one out and a runner on third base, Julio Rodríguez homered, then next batter Juan Francisco also homered.
South Korea got two runs back by scoring in the second and fourth inning.
The run in the fourth was scored on a homerun by Hyunsoo Kim.
The Dominicans added a run in the top of the fifth on a double by former Major Leaguer Melky Cabrera.
But in the bottom of the fifth, it was the Asian team that rallied for four runs to take a 6-5 lead.
The first and fourth run were scored on singles by Hae Min Park and Baekho Kang.
In between, runs were scored on a grounder and a wild pitch.
In the top of the eighth, the Dominicans turned the game around again by scoring five runs.
Jelson Guzmán scored the tying run on a wild pitch.
Hereafter, Juan Francisco delivered a 2-run double, followed by a 2-run homerun by Johan Mieses.
In the Final on Saturday-evening, the Japanese pitching dominated and never ran into probems.
It was widely expected that former Major League-pitcher Masahiro Tanaka was to be the starting pitcher for Japan.
Tanaka played for New York Yankees in 2014-2020, but this season, he returned to Japan to play for Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for whom he also played in 2007-2013.
But instead, it was Masato Morishita who started.
The 23-year old righthander made his debut in the highest professional league in Japan in 2020, playing for Hiroshima Toyo Carp for whom he also plays this season.
Tanaka was the starter for Japan in the round robin-game against the USA on Monday and then gave up six hits and three runs in 3 2/3 inning.
Although Japan led only 1-0 in the first seven innings, the USA was unable to do some scoring.
The team only got into scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh inning and got only one runner to reach third base in the entire game.
Team USA was led by former Major League Manager Mike Scioscia.
The former catcher was the Manager of Los Angeles Angeles in 2000-2018, winning the World Series in 2002.
He played for Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980-1992, winning the World Series in 1981 and 1988.
Japan also had an experienced Manager, as the team was led by Atsunori Inaba.
He played professionally for Yakult Swallows (1995-2004) and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2005-2014) and played in eight All Star Games.
The former outfielder/first baseman won the Japan Series in 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2006.
Inaba is the Manager of the National Team of Japan since 2017.
After the USA was retired in order in the top of the first inning by starter Masato Morishita, Japan immediately had good contact in its first at bat off of starter Nick Martinez.
Tetsuto Yama led off with a single and with one out, Masataka Yoshida hit a line drive.
But that was caught by first baseman Triston Casas, resulting in an inning-ending double play.
...Munetaka Murakami is greeted after his homerun...
(© Photo: WBSC) |
In the top of the second inning, Eric Filia accounted for the first American basehit, but he stranded on first base.
This time, it was Japan that was retired in order in its second at bat.
In the top of the third inning, Morishita struckout the first two batters, gave up a single, then closed with another strikeout.
Moments later, Japan took an 1-0 lead when Munetaka Murakami homered with one out.
The 21-year old third baseman plays for Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball since 2018.
He was the Rookie of the Year in 2019.
After the USA was retired in order again in the fourth, Japan got a chance to take some more distance in the bottom of the fourth.
With one out, the team got the bases loaded, but also left three runners, as a force play and strikeout followed.
The USA got into scoring position for the first time in the top of the fifth.
With two outs, Nick Allen singled and Jack Lopez was hit by a pitch, but a grounder closed the at bat.
In the bottom of the fifth, Nick Martinez struckout the side.
The righthander also had a good outing and struckout seven batters in the six innings he pitched.
The USA then got its second runner in scoring position in the top of the sixth off of Koudai Senga, the first of four relievers for Japan in this game.
Tyler Austin led off with a walk and with two outs, Eric Filia was hit by a pitch.
A foul pop-up followed.
The USA came closest to a run in the top of the seventh inning when it got its lone runner on third base off of reliever Hiromi Itoh.
With one out, Nick Allen doubled and advanced to third base on a grounder.
He was left behind, as another grounder closed the inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, Japan also left a runner behind on third base.
Ryder Ryan took over the American pitching, but gave up a lead-off double to Hideto Asamura.
His pinch-runner Sosuke Genda moved to third base on a grounder.
With two outs and Genda on third base, powerhitter Munetaka Murakami was walked intentionally.
Ryan then closed with a strikeout.
In the bottom of the eighth, Japan added an insurance run off of new pitcher Scott McGough.
He gave up a lead-off single to Tetsuto Yamada, who moved on a sacrifice bunt by Hayato Sakamoto, then scored when a throwing error from the outfield followed a single by Masataka Yoshida, who himself ended up on second base.
Next batter Seiya Suzuki walked and Japan got runners on second and third base via a sacrifice bunt by Sosuke Genda.
But they were left behind.
In the top of the ninth, closer Ryoji Kuribayashi became the fifth pitcher for Japan.
The righthander began with a strikeout and then got a flyout.
With two outs, he gave up a single to Nick Allen, but he was forced out an a game-ending grounder by Jack Lopez.
...Jan Kuipers...
(© Photo: Rob Schuurman) |
Kuribayashi is the relief-ace, pitched in all games for Japan and was successfull in all of them.
The righthander was the winner in the opening game against the Dominican Republic in the come-from-behind 4-3 win.
Trailing 3-1, Japan then scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth.
He then earned a save in the 7-4 win against Mexico and was the winning pitcher in a 7-6 win in ten innings against the USA.
In the Semi-Final against South Korea, Kuribayashi got another save and today, he earned his third save.
In the page-system Play-Offs, the USA reached the Final by winning 3-1 against the Dominican Republic, then a 7-2 win against South Korea in the Semi-Final.
By winning the Silver Medal, American infielder Eddy Alvarez became the seventh athlete in Olympic history to win a Medal at both the Winter and Summer Games.
In 2014 (Sochi, Russia), he also won a Silver Medal when he was a member of the 5,000 m relay shorttrack-team.
During the Opening Ceremony this year, Alvarez was one of the two atlhetes who carried the American Flag, becoming the first baseball-player to do so.
The other six atletes who won a Medal in both the Summer and Winter Games are Gillis Grafström from Sweden (Gold, figure skating, 1920 Summer Games, Antwerp, Belgium; Gold, figure skating, 1924 Winter Games, Chamonix, France), Eddie Eagan from the USA (Gold, boxing, 1920 Summer Games, Antwerp, Belgium; Gold, bobsleigh, 1932 Winter Games, Lake Placid, USA), Jacob Tullin Thams from Norway (Gold, ski jumping, 1924 Winter Games, Chamonix, France; Silver, sailing, 1936 Summer Games, Berlin, Germany), Christa Rothenburger from then East-Germany (Gold, speed skating, 1984 Winter Games, Sarajevo, then-Yugoslavia; Gold, speed skating, 1988 Winter Games, Calgary, Canada; Silver, cycling, 1988 Summer Games, Seoul, South Korea; Bronze, speed skating, 1992 Winter Games, Albertville, France), Clara Hughes from Canada (2x Bronze, cycling, 1996 Summer Games, Atlanta, USA; Bronze, speed skating, 2002 Winter Games, Salt Lake City, USA; Gold & Silver, speed skating, 2006 Winter Games, Turin, Italy; Bronze, speed skating, 2010 Winter Games, Vancouver, Canada) and Lauryn Williams from the USA (Silver, atletics, 2004 Summer Games, Athens, Greece; Gold, athletics, 2012 Summer Games, London, United Kingdom; Silver, bobsleigh, 2014 Winter Games, Sochi, Russia).
The Netherlands didn't qualify for the Olympic Games, as it was eliminated last month in the Final Baseball Olympic Qualifier in Mexico, which was won by the Dominican Republic.
In 2019, the Netherlands could have qualified in the Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which was held in Italy.
But there Israel surprised, won the event and qualified for the Olympic Games.
By finishing in second place, the Netherlands therefore had to play in the Final Qualifier, which was scheduled for April last year in Taiwan.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the event was postponed to this year and transfered from Taiwan to Mexico.
However, there was one game-official from the Netherlands active in the Olympic Baseball Tournament and he was also assigned for the Final, as Jan Kuipers was one of the three Technical Commissioners during the deciding game.
With that, all four game-officials from the Netherlands in the Olympic Baseball and Softball Tournaments were active in the Final.
In the Softball Final, Mariana Prins was one of the Umpires and Dennis Duin was one of the Official Scorers.
Linda Steijger was the Scoring Director.
(August 7)
Final Standings:
1. Japan, 2. USA, 3. Dominican Republic, 4. South Korea, 5. Israel, 6. Mexico.
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Final 2020 Olympic Games.