Rob Issa, FISM News
Shohei Ohtani threw a nasty slider past Mike Trout, raised his arms and the celebration for Japan began.
Ohtani struck out his Los Angeles Angels teammate in a dream matchup to seal Japan’s 3-2 victory over the United States in the World Baseball Classic final Tuesday night.
The 28-year-old Ohtani, baseball’s greatest two-way player, was Japan’s designated hitter and batted third in the lineup. Midway through the game, he jogged to the bullpen to loosen up in case he would be called in to pitch.
Though he’s a starting pitcher for the Angels, Ohtani was brought in to close out the title game with Japan clinging to a one-run lead. For several innings, broadcasters and viewers wondered if Trout and Ohtani would get a chance to go head-to-head.
Ohtani walked Jeff McNeil to start the ninth inning but retired Mookie Betts on a double-play grounder.
That brought up Trout, the three-time American League Most Valuable Player and 10-time All-Star center fielder.
The count went full with Ohtani reaching 101.6 mph on a fastball. Trout swung and missed at a 3-2 slider on the outside corner to end it. He walked away dejected while Ohtani threw his glove and cap in the air.
“This is the best moment in my life,” Ohtani said through a translator.
Japan won its third World Baseball Classic title and its first since 2009.
Ohtani was named MVP of the tournament. He hit .435 with one homer, four doubles, eight RBIs, and 10 walks. On the mound, he was 2-0 with a save and a 1.86 ERA.
“I think every baseball fan wanted to see that. I’ve been answering questions about it for the last month and a half,” Trout said. “Did you think it was going to end in any other way?”
Trout and Ohtani have been teammates since 2018. They hugged behind the batting cage before the game and then held their nation’s flag while leading their teams toward home plate during the introductions.
Team USA manager Mark DeRosa had one regret about the ending.
“I just would have liked to have seen Mike hit a 500-foot homer,” he said. “I saw him take a big deep breath to try and control his emotions. I can’t even imagine being in that moment, the two best players on the planet locking horns as teammates in that spot.”
DeRosa, like everyone else watching Ohtani, had admiration for a player who is being compared to Babe Ruth.
“What he’s doing in the game is what probably 90% of the guys in that clubhouse did in Little League or in youth tournaments, and he’s able to pull it off on the biggest stages,” DeRosa said. “He is a unicorn to the sport. I think other guys will try it, but I don’t think they’re going to do it to his level.”
The U.S. team jumped to a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Trea Turner launched his fifth homer of the tourney, tying the WBC record set by South Korea’s Seung Yuop Lee in 2006.
But Japan tied it on the first pitch of the bottom half of the inning when Munetaka Murakami drove Merrill Kelly’s pitch 432 feet into the right-field upper deck. After Japan loaded the bases, Lars Nootbaar drove in the go-ahead run with a run-scoring groundout off Aaron Loup for a 2-1 lead.
Kazuma Okamoto increased Japan’s lead to 3-1 in the fourth with a solo homer off Kyle Freeland over the wall in left-center.
The Americans got within a run in the eighth on a mammoth solo homer by Kyle off Yu Darvish.
But Ohtani came in and closed the door after giving Japan a pregame pep talk in the Miami Marlins clubhouse.
“Let’s stop admiring them,” he said, according to a translation of the video. “If you admire them, you can’t surpass them. We came here to surpass them, to reach the top. For one day, let’s throw away our admiration for them and just think about winning.”
Japan went 7-0 in the tournament and is the only nation to win the title more than once. The Samurai Warriors went 7-0 and outscored opponents 56-18. The Dominican Republic in 2013 was the only other unbeaten champion in baseball’s premier national team tournament.