Japan Wins World Baseball Classic Again

The World Baseball Classic is again won by Team Japan as they beat Team Korea 5-3 in 10 innings. Japan also won the WBC in 2006. And once again Dice-K Matsuzaka was awarded the MVP award for what he did earlier in the World Baseball Classic. Ichiro Suzuki had 4 hits in the game including the game-winning 2 run single in the tenth so it was surprising Suzuki did not receive the MVP award. Ichiro was Japan's best and most consistent player throughout the WBC.

Japan's way to the finals was not easy. They finished Round One Play with 2 wins and 1 loss placing second and advancing to Round Two. In that round, Japan finished with 3 wins and 1 loss winning Pool 1 and advancing to the Semi-Finals. In the Semi-Finals, Japan met Team United States who advanced to the Semis themselves with a dramatic come-from-behind victory against Puerto Rico. Japan beat the favored USA 9-4 to earn their finals spot. The only two losses Japan had was against Korea.

Korea's way into the finals was similar to Japan's. They finished Round One Play with 3 wins and 1 loss winning the Group and advancing to Round Two. In that round, Korea finished with 2 wins and 1 loss finishing Pool 1 second and also advancing to the Semi-Finals. In the Semi-Finals, Korea met Team Venezuela who had only 1 loss and was undefeated in the second round. Korea scored five runs in the first inning and blew out Venezuela by a final score of 10-2. With this upset, Team Korea was into the finals.

Korea and Japan were in the same group in Round 1 and Round 2 so it was only fair for them to meet in the Finals to settle the score and find out who the better team was. Before the finals, Japan and Korea had already met 4 times in group play splitting the meetings 2-2. Starting for Korea was J. Bong and for Japan, it was H. Iwakuma. Japan were the favorites in this game because they had the better known players and more MLB players.

Japan got on the scoreboard first in the third when M. Ogasawara singled in Japan's first run. Korea would respond in the fifth when S. Choo hit a solo homerun to tie the score at one. Japan would score its second and third run in the seventh and eighth with a single and a sacrifice fly. Korea would cut the deficit to one run with its own sacrifice fly in the eighth. Japan would bring in its young Japanese sensation pitcher Yu Darvish who is only 22 years of age for the save. Darvish could not hold the lead for Team Japan as he gave up the tying run on a single. Even though Darvish gave up the run in the ninth, he also struck out the side and the game would head into extra innings. With two outs and runners on second and third, Ichiro had a 10 pitch at-bat culminating in a 2-run RBI single. Darvish sat down the side in order and got the win. The next World Baseball Classic will take place in 2013 and Japan will once again be the team to beat.