TOKYO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Defending 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.<\/p>\n
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and Masataka Yoshida also homered for Japan. Ohtani\u2019s homer followed his grand slam Friday in a 13-0 win over Chinese Taipei. <\/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 Chinese Taipei (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 was at the game on Saturday. On Friday, actor Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and pop singer Bad Bunny showed up.<\/p>\n
Fairchild\u2019s grand slam powers Chinese Taipei to 14-0 win<\/p>\n
Stuart Fairchild\u2019s second-inning grand slam powered Chinese Taipei to a 14-0 victory over the winless Czech Republic.<\/p>\n
The victory was Chinese Taipei\u2019s first in the tournament and came the day after it was pounded 13-0 by Japan.<\/p>\n
The game was stopped by the mercy rule with Chinese Taipei leading by 10 or more after seven innings.<\/p>\n
Chinese Taipei 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. They were Chinese Taipei\u2019s 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\u2019s blast.<\/p>\n
Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang got the victory and Novak was the losing pitcher.<\/p>\n
Chinese Taipei 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Defending champion Japan hit four home runs \u2014 two by Chicago Cubs slugger Seiya Suzuki \u2014 to beat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,15350,42502,39,7877,2335,3652,1393,2372,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,792,4,79382,105,468,16773,1935,235,3653],"class_list":{"0":"post-612241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-basis","10":"tag-chinese-taipei","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-first-inning","13":"tag-home-run","14":"tag-homer","15":"tag-hyeseong-kim","16":"tag-japan","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-dodgers","19":"tag-ladodgers","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-losangelesdodgers","24":"tag-masataka-yoshida","25":"tag-mlb","26":"tag-other-game","27":"tag-seiya-suzuki","28":"tag-shohei-ohtani","29":"tag-south-korea","30":"tag-stuart-fairchild","31":"tag-team","32":"tag-victory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116189968703468277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612241","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=612241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}