Japan Defeats Cuba 10-6 to Clinch Inaugural World Baseball Classic Title
March 21 (Bloomberg) -- Japan beat Cuba 10-6 to win the inaugural World Baseball Classic yesterday, scoring four runs in the fourth and ninth innings to clinch its first international title in nine years.
Hitoshi Tamura, Michihiro Ogasawara and Toshiaki Imae drove in two runs each to give Japan a 6-1 lead at Petco Park in San Diego, California. After Cuba made it 6-5 in the eighth inning, Japan scored four times in the top of the ninth to secure its only international success since the 1997 Intercontinental Cup.
Japan's fifth win over Cuba in 38 meetings included three runs for Ichiro Suzuki, who plays for Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and who started the ninth-inning rally with a run-scoring single. Frederich Cepeda drove in three runs for Cuba, which was seeking a 33rd title in 37 tournaments.
``We're the best team,'' Ichiro said in an interview with Nippon Television Network. ``Today is the biggest day in my baseball life.''
Japan, managed by all-time home run record-holder Sadaharu Oh, had won its previous game against Cuba at the 2004 Olympics following losses in the semifinals of the 2000 Summer Games and in the gold-medal game at the 1996 Olympics.
Cuban players congratulated the Japanese team on the field after the game, with several posing for pictures with Ichiro, one of the two major-league players in the final.
This was the first international tournament to feature players from the top North American league. Of the 16 teams, those with the most major-leaguers -- the U.S., Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico -- failed to reach the title game.
Japan Strikes Early
Japan scored four runs in the first inning on three singles, two walks and a hit-batsman. Toshiaki Imae was the only player to hit a ball out of the infield during the inning, with a two- out single to centerfield that drove in two runs.
Cuba struck back in the bottom of the first inning as Eduardo Paret led off with a homer against Japanese starter Daisuke Matsuzaka. It was the second run allowed in three tournament starts for Matsuzaka, who was voted the Most Valuable Player of the World Baseball Classic.
Matsuzaka, who led Japan's Pacific League with 215 innings and 226 strikeouts for the Seibu Lions in 2005, gave up one run over four innings against Cuba, striking out five. Japan pushed its lead to 6-1 in the fifth inning as Hitoshi Tamura drove in Ichiro with an infield single and Ogasawara had a sacrifice fly.
Cuba scored twice in the sixth inning on Cepeda's run- scoring double and an RBI-single by Osmani Urrutia. Cepeda added a two-run homer in the eighth inning to pull Cuba within 6-5.
Japan Responds
Japan answered in the ninth inning, as Kosuke Fukodome drove in two runs after Ichiro's run-scoring single and Ogasawara added another sacrifice fly.
Cuba pushed across a run in the bottom of the ninth before Akinori Otsuka, who pitches for the Texas Rangers, struck out Yulieski Gourriel to end the game.
Japan now has three international titles, also having won the 1973 Intercontinental Cup. Cuba has reached the finals of the past 37 international tournaments in which it's played. The Cubans haven't finished lower than second since 1951, when they placed third at the World Cup in Mexico.
Cuba was initially denied a permit to play in the World Baseball Classic because of a U.S. embargo of commercial transactions with the country. The Cubans were allowed to participate after agreeing they wouldn't benefit financially.
Yesterday's final drew a sell-out crowd of 42,696, bringing the 39-game tournament total to 737,112, MLB.com reported. The three-week Classic was designed to boost baseball's international sales, which account for just 5 percent of its $5 billion in annual revenue, and increase the sport's popularity.
``The intensity in the stands as well as on the playing field was absolutely remarkable,'' MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said on MLB.com. ``I'm very confident that this will be the platform that we use to take this sport internationally to the dimension that I want to take it and believe that we will.''
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