{"id":611888,"date":"2026-03-07T16:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611888\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T16:04:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:04:24","slug":"suzuki-homers-twice-and-ohtani-goes-deep-as-japan-overpowers-south-korea-8-6-sports-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/611888\/","title":{"rendered":"Suzuki homers twice and Ohtani goes deep as Japan overpowers South Korea 8-6 | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Defending champion Japan hit four home runs \u2014 two by Chicago Cubs slugger Seiya Suzuki \u2014 to beat South Korea 8-6 on Saturday and stay undefeated in Pool C of the World Baseball Classic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/a> and Masataka Yoshida also homered for Japan. Ohtani\u2019s homer followed his grand slam<\/a> Friday in a 13-0 win over Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Both teams showed more power than pitching, particularly in the first four innings in a slugfest as the two combined for five home runs topped by Suzuki\u2019s pair at the Tokyo Dome.<\/p>\n

Japan and Australia are 2-0 in Pool C play and meet Sunday as the two favorites to advance to the quarterfinals. In Sunday\u2019s other game, South Korea (1-1) faces Taiwan (1-2).<\/p>\n

South Korea took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning off starter Yusei Kikuchi with consecutive singles by Do Yeong Kim, Jahmai Jones and Jung Hoo Lee and a two-run double by Bo Gyeong Moon.<\/p>\n

Suzuki hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to pull Japan back to 3-2.<\/p>\n

Japan surged ahead 5-3 in the third on solo home runs by Ohtani, Suzuki and Yoshida.<\/p>\n

South Korea played its own home-run derby in the top of the fourth, drawing even 5-5 on Hyeseong Kim\u2019s two-run homer off Japan\u2019s second pitcher, Hiromi Itoh. It was the fifth home run between the two teams through four innings.<\/p>\n

Japan broke through in the seventh to lead 8-5. Young Kyu Kim, who entered in relief earlier in the inning, walked Suzuki with the bases loaded to force in a run, and Yoshida followed with a single to score two more.<\/p>\n

The Koreans scored one in the eighth to make it 8-6 but left the bases loaded when Yuki Matsumoto struck out Hyeseong Kim.<\/p>\n

Atsuki Taneichi was the winning pitcher with a save for Taisei Ota. Yeong Hyun Park took the loss.<\/p>\n

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye<\/a> was at the game on Saturday. On Friday, actor Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and pop singer Bad Bunny<\/a> showed up.<\/p>\n

Fairchild’s grand slam powers Taiwan to 14-0 win<\/p>\n

Stuart Fairchild’s second-inning grand slam powered Taiwan to a 14-0 victory over the winless Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

The victory was Taiwan’s first in the tournament and came the day after it was pounded 13-0 by Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The game was stopped by the mercy rule with Taiwan leading by 10 or more after seven innings.<\/p>\n

Taiwan played small ball for a 2-0 lead in the first inning, capitalizing on two bunt singles, a double steal and a throwing error by Czech catcher Martin Cervenka. It was Taiwan’s first two runs of the tournament.<\/p>\n

It was big ball in the second inning.<\/p>\n

With two out, Czech pitcher Jan Novak gave up a single and walked two, setting the stage for Fairchild’s blast.<\/p>\n

Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang got the victory and Novak was the losing pitcher.<\/p>\n

Taiwan added two more runs in the fourth, another in the fifth and five in the sixth. They also set a WBC tournament record with seven stolen bases.<\/p>\n

Fairchild, who qualified for the team through his Taiwanese mother, plays in the Cleveland Guardians organization.<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Defending champion Japan hit four home runs \u2014 two by Chicago Cubs slugger Seiya Suzuki…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,161,4,256,79353,185],"class_list":["post-611888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-cubs","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-ohtani-japan-south-korea-wbc","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116188745943349859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}