Japan rallied past the United States in 10 innings to reach its first Olympic baseball semifinals since 1992. The Japanese team, with a lineup of all amateurs, was down 8-0 after three innings but scored six runs in the fourth and fifth innings to beat the United States 13-12.
Japan rallied past United States in 10 innings to reach the Olympic baseball semifinals. The game was tied at 3-3, but Japan scored three runs in the top of the 10th inning to win 5-3. Read more in detail here: is baseball in the olympics.
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN (Kyodo News) — Brandon Dickson, a 36-year-old pitcher who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues in nine years, was the first out of the bullpen and the first to make a mistake.
Last but not least was Edwin Jackson, a 37-year-old free agent who had been dismissed by five major league clubs.
Four of the United States’ seven relievers combined to give up five runs as the Americans squandered a three-run lead in a 7-6 defeat to Japan on Monday night, putting them one win away from being eliminated from the Olympics.
Mike Scioscia, the United States manager, stated, “We played a terrific game today.” “On the mound, there were certain things that got away from us.”
Takuya Kai celebrates with his teammates after hitting the game-winning home run to advance Japan to the Olympic baseball semifinals against the United States. Getty Images/Yuichi Masuda
Japan overcame Masahiro Tanaka’s brief appearance. Yuki Yanagita knotted the game at 6-6 with an RBI grounder off Scott McGough in the ninth inning, and Takuya Kai of Fukuoka delivered the game-winning single in the 10th inning against Jackson (0-1) to advance the hosts to the semifinals.
Suguru Iwazaki, Koudai Senga, Yasuaki Yamasaki, Yudai Ohno, and Ryoji Kuribayashi (1-0) pitched 513 innings of one-hit, shutout relief. Triston Casas’ second home run of the tournament, a three-run shot in the third, was the only stain on Japan’s bullpen. This gave the Americans a 6-3 lead against Koyo Aoyagi, who had given up five hits in one inning.
“They’re a talented group of men.” They can go out there and compete with the best of them,” said Tyler Austin, a designated hitter from the United States who is in his second season with Yokohama after four years in the big leagues.
In the ninth inning, David Robertson, a 36-year-old former closer, struck out Ryosuke Kikuchi on a curveball in the dirt, stranding a runner at third.
McGough, a 31-year-old former Miami Marlins closer with 16 saves in his third season with the Central League’s Yakult Swallows, was called in by Scioscia. As rain began to pour, he walked Seiya Suzuki with one out, then gave Hideto Asamura a single to put runners at the corners. Yanagita’s second-base chopper brought in a run.
“David has been looking for a few things,” Scioscia said. “Scott is familiar with these batters and can work his way through the middle of the order.” This is a man in whom we have a lot of faith. He barely missed with a few pitches in the ninth inning, and that altered the game.”
Extra innings in tournaments begin with runners on first and second base, a more severe distortion than the runner-on-second rule in Major League Baseball, which has been in effect since the start of the 2020 -21 season.
In the top of the 10th, Kuribayashi retired Todd Frazier, Eric Filia, and Mark Kolozsvary in that order.
Ryoya Kurihara, a pinch hitter, sacrificed against Jackson (0-1), who has pitched for a total of 14 big league clubs. Kai, who had come in for a pinch hitter in the ninth, lined the following pitch over the five-man infield and off the right-field wall.
After the game, neither McGough nor Jackson showed up in the interview room.
On Wednesday night, Japan (3-0) will face South Korea (3-1) for a place in the final.
The United States (2-1) was eliminated in the second round of the double-elimination tournament. To advance to the final this weekend, it must win Wednesday’s elimination game against the winner of Tuesday’s game between the Dominican Republic (1-2) and Israel (1-3), and then again Thursday against the loser of the Japan-South Korea game.
Tanaka pitched in the Olympics for the first time since 2008, when he tossed seven shutout innings as part of a team that featured Yu Darvish.
With an RBI double, Tanaka’s old New York Yankees teammate Frazier ignited a three-run fourth inning.
Tanaka replied via a translator, “Yes, he is a close buddy of mine outside of the field.” “However, once you start playing, it makes no difference.” So it was just me trying to figure out how to get him out.”
With RBI singles, Kolozsvary and No. 9 batter Nick Allen followed Frazier.
Tanaka, a 32-year-old right-hander, was dressed in pinstripes, but instead of an interlocking NY on his hat, he wore a J. Last winter, he returned to the Pacific League’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles following seven seasons with the Yankees.
“There were no offers or possibilities that went above and beyond my desire to play in Japan,” he said.
Tanaka didn’t want to repeat remarks he made on Twitter in March about an event in Florida that made his family feel uncomfortable when the coronavirus epidemic started, which was taken as implying they had experienced anti-Asian prejudice.
“I’ve already digested everything, so I don’t have anything to say over here,” he said. “As for racism, I understand that this is a very delicate subject, but I believe that it is something that should never happen, regardless of country or race.”
In the third inning, host Japan pursued Tampa Bay prospect Shane Baz, who was looking for his first baseball gold medal. Hayato Sakamoto, the 2019 Central League MVP, doubled on a catchable ball that Bubba Starling missed as he crashed into the center-field wall, while Masataka Yoshida, the 2020 Pacific League batting champion, and 2015 Pacific League MVP Yanagita both had RBI singles to go along with a pair of walks.
Due to dizziness, Starling had to leave in the midst of the fourth.
Sakamoto’s second double, a shot over the 16-foot left field wall, knotted the game 3-3 in the fourth inning against Dickson.
Suzuki, Japan’s 2019 Home Run Derby winner, blasted a leadoff home run, Asamura doubled, and Ryosuke Kikuchi delivered a run-scoring infield single to cut the deficit to 6-5 in the fifth inning against Carter.
“It’s heartening that our fate is still in our control,” Scioscia remarked.
ISRAEL 1, SOUTH KOREA 11
Hyun Soo Kim, a former major league outfielder who played for the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies in 2016-17, completed a seven-run fifth with a two-run homer off Jeremy Bleich, a 34-year-old left-handed pitcher who retired as a professional player in 2019.
With two outs in the seventh inning, Kim blasted his second double of the game against Shlomo Lipetz, a 42-year-old right-hander who will return to his day job at New York’s City Winery after the Olympics. Soo scored on Hye-seong Kim’s single, bringing the competition to a close for the first time due to an Olympic blowout rule.
Israel (1-3) faces the Dominican Republic in an elimination game on Tuesday (1-2).
Ji-hwan South Korea grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second inning thanks to a two-run homer by Oh. Four of South Korea’s 18 hits came from Baek-ho Kang.
Sang-woo Cho (1-0) retired Ryan Lavarnway on an inning-ending humpback liner to the mound after Danny Valencia’s bases-loaded walk reduced the advantage to 3-1 in the fifth.
In the bottom half of the inning, South Korea scored six runs, five of them earned, against Chicago Cubs minor leaguer Alex Katz, who was charged with six runs, five of them earned, in one-third of an inning.
Joey Wagman (0-2) was dismissed from the Oakland Athletics’ minor system in 2018 after facing 22 batters and allowing three runs, ten hits, and three walks in 32 innings.
