Japan defeated Team USA 3-2 on Tuesday night to win the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Japan, unbeaten throughout the tournament, has now won three WBC tournaments: 2006, 2009 and 2023. They remain the only nation to have won multiple tournaments, although a win would have joined them.
The Americans took an early lead when Phillies shortstop Trea Turner hit a solo home run in the second to put them 1-0 up. Turner’s home run made history on both a national and tournament level. We’ll get into that further below. Now just enjoy the moving pictures:
Team USA’s lead didn’t last long. Third baseman from Japan Munetaka Murakami, who hit 56 homers last season and drove in Monday’s game-winning run against Mexico, hit his own solo homer in the third inning to level the score. Check out this monster mash:
Japan would later take a 2-1 lead against Lars Nootbaar’s choice of an outfield player. They would extend it to 3-1 on another home run, this time from first baseman Kazuma Okamoto.
To wrap up the game, Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama turned to two Major League Baseball aces. Padre’s right-hander Yu Darvish went first and checked in for the eighth. He experienced some turbulence when he hit a long home run to Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber, reducing Japan’s lead to 3-2. Darvish also gave Turner a hit, but he worked around him.
Angels Two-Way star Shohei Ohtani, whose availability had been uncertain since last week, took the reins for the ninth. He finished the win and secured Japan’s championship. He worked around a leadoff walk to Jeff McNeil and forced a double-play ball from Mookie Betts to set up the matchup everyone wanted to see: against Angels teammate Mike Trout, in a clash between arguably the two best players in the world .
Ohtani and Trout appropriately worked to full points, with Ohtani securing a pair of swing and misses on 100 mph fastballs. Ohtani then slammed Trout away with a slider, securing the end of the game and tournament.
Here are five more things you should know about Japan’s latest WBC championship.
1. Japan’s other pitchers are holding strong
Most attention will go to Ohtani and Darvish or Murakami and Okamoto’s home runs, but Japan can attribute much of their win to an overall strong performance from their pitching team. Lefty Shota Imanaga started the contest and held the Americans on a four-shot run over two innings. He was then succeeded by a concert of NPB guns: Shosei Togo, Hiroto Takahashi, Hiromi Itoh, and Taisei Ota. Those four combined to pitch five innings, give up three hits and three walks, and hit five batters.
2. Japan ends dominant run
Japan went 7-0 in the WBC and led the table in both pool and singles play. They didn’t just beat their opponents; they surpassed them. Japan surpassed their opponents by a combined margin of 56-18 – that’s an average of more than five runs per competition for those without a calculator. In addition, Japan scored at least six runs in all but one of their games. Fittingly, the exception was Tuesday, when they plated just three runs.
3. Team USA weakens with men
The Americans didn’t want any chance of catching up with or overtaking Japan. On the night they went 0 for 7 with runners in goal position. This resulted in a total of nine runners remaining on base. Several of America’s top bats — Nolan Arenado, Turner, Schwarber and Mookie Betts — stranded runners on base with two outs. If one or two of them had converted, the game would have ended differently. Unfortunately, that shouldn’t be the case.
4. Turner makes history
We mentioned in the introduction that Turner’s home run, his fifth of the tournament, had historical significance. For starters, he set a new record for most career home runs hit by an American batsman in WBC history. He also tied the most total home runs in a single tournament. That award previously belonged to Korea’s Seung-Yuop Lee, who homed five times as part of the 2006 event. Adrián Beltré (Dominican Republic, 2006) and Wladimir Balentien (Netherlands, 2017) finished third and fourth in these respective tournaments, each with four home runs.
5. The next WBC is in 2026
Before the game, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the next edition of the WBC will be held in 2026. The tournament is typically held every four years, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced a seven-year hiatus. The decision to host another WBC in 2026 is likely based on the fact that 20 years have passed since the first tournament. You can find out here which 16 countries have already qualified for participation. By the way, Angels outfielder Mike Trout has already agreed to take part.
You can relive all of CBS Sports’ running commentary from the game below.