(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
    Japan wins World Baseball Classic by winning two thrillers
Nederlands
 MIAMI, Florida (USA) -
For the third time, Japan is the winner of the World Baseball Classic.
Japan earlier was the winner of the global event in 2006 and 2009.
The Dominican Republic then won the third edition in 2013 and the USA captured the WBC-title in 2017.
On Tuesday-evening (March 21), defending champion USA tried to become the second team to win two consecutive titles.
Initially, the team took the lead, but Japan came alongside, added two more runs and went on to win 3-2.
Afterwards, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the sixth edition of the Classic will be held in 2026, as scheduled.
To advance to the Final, Japan and the USA of course first had to win the Semi-Final.
The Semi-Finals and the Final were all played at loanDepot Park, the home of Major League-club Miami Marlins in Miami, Florida.
On Sunday-evening, the USA outscored Cuba 14-2 in the first Semi-Final.
The USA led 13-2 halfway the seventh inning.
However, the mercy-rule is only applied in Pool-play and not in the Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals and Final.
The USA collected fourteen basehits and led only 2-1 after the first inning against Cuba, which recorded twelve basehits.
However, Cuba managed to score only one more run (in the fifth), while the Americans kept on scoring from the second inning, highlighted wit h a 4-run rally in the sixth that lifted the lead to 13-2.
Trea Turner hit two homeruns for the USA, one solo, one with two runners on base.
Paul Goldschmidt (2-run) and Cedric Mullins (solo) also homered.
Mookie Betts was 3-for-6 and scored twice, Turner also had three hits, Goldschmidt batted in four runs.
On Monday-evening, the second Semi-Final between Japan and Mexico was a game that developed in a classic thriller was decided on the final pitch of the game.
Mexico took a 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning when Luis Urķas hit a 3-run homerun.
Japan was initially kept scoreless by the Mexican pitching.
Also, leftfielder Randy Arozarena robbed Kazuma Okamoto of a homerun.
He led off the bottom of the fifth and drove the ball into deep leftfield, where Arozarena jumped up and caught the ball above the wall.
But Japan came alongside in the bottom of the seventh when Masataka Yoshida also hit a 3-run homerun.
Mexico came back immediately in the top of the eighth, scoring two runs.
First, the team re-took the lead when Randy Arozarena and Alex Verdugo.hit back-to-back doubles.
Moments later, Verdugo's pinch-runner Jarren Duran moved on a single by Joey Meneses and scored on a 2-out single by Isaac Paredes.
On the same hit, Meneses also tried to score, but he was eliminated at the plate, which ended the at bat.
In the bottom of the eighth, Japan got one run back on a sacrifice fly by Hotaka Yamakawa.
After Mexico was kept scoreless in the bottom of the ninth, Japan struck moments later off of new pitcher Giovanny Gallegos.
First, Shohei Ohtani led off with a double, then Masataka Yoshida walked and was replaced by pinch-runner Ukyo Shuto.
Next batter Munetaka Murakami then drove the ball into left/centerfield for a 2-run, walk-off double, as both Ohtani and Shuto scored.
Japan won 6-5!
On Tuesday-evening, more than 36,000 spectators saw another thriller, the Final between Japan and the USA.
With one out in the top of the second, the USA opened the score when Trea Turner hit his fifth homerun in the homerun to tie a WBC-record.
The American lead was shortlived.
In the bottom of the second, Munetaka Murakami, the hero of the Semi-Final, led off and also homered.
Later in the at bat, Japan then got the bases loaded and took a 2-1 lead on a grounder by Lars Nootbaar.
Japan added a run in the fourth when Kazuma Okamoto led off with a homerun.
The USA then narrowed the deficit to 3-2 in the top of the eighth when Kyle Schwarber hit an one-out homerun.
With the small 3-2 lead, Shohei Ohtani (who was the DH) took the mound for Japan.
He walked lead-off hitter Jeff McNeil, but next batter Mookie Betts grounded into a double play.
That set up the confrontation between Japan-star Ohtani and USA-star (and team-captain) Mike Trout.
Ohtani and Trout are teammates at Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani won the battle and struckout Trout to end the game!
Ohtani was named Most Valuable Player of the Classic.
(March 19-21)
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