Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
Related News
Japan whips Cuba to race into semis
Source: Agencies |
March 20, 2009, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
WORLD Baseball Classic champion Japan advanced to the semifinals with a 5-0 win over Cuba on Wednesday that eliminated the Caribbean power and consigned them to their worst finish in more than 50 years.
Japanese starter Hisashi Iwakuma held the Cubans scoreless over six innings, where he scattered five hits. "I was trying to keep the ball down. I was more interested in getting them to drive the ball into the ground than getting strike outs," Iwakuma said.
Cuban centre fielder Yoennis Cespedes' error in the top of the fourth when he dropped a flyball from infielder Michihiro Ogasawara allowed two runs to score and proved costly for the Cubans.
The error, caused when the ball bounced out of Cespedes' glove, hit him on the head and dropped to the ground, allowed Norichaka Aoki and Atsunori Inaba to score and drove Cuban starter Yunieski Maya from the game. Japan added another run in the fifth after two walks and an RBI single from Norichaka Aoki, who had four hits in the game and drove in two runs.
Japan added its fourth run in the seventh before Ichiro Suzuki, who had been in a batting slump throughout most of the second round, scored the final run after hitting a one-out triple in the top of the ninth.
Cuba, the runner up to Japan at the inaugural WBC in 2006, and last year's Olympic silver medalists, had not finished lower than third in 70 years of international baseball tournaments. The worst it had done during that span were third place finishes in the IBAF World Cup in 1944 and 1951.
"This was a very meaningful event for our team and it's something that will go down in the history of Japanese baseball," Japanese manager Tatsunori Hara said.
In a battle that will determine the match-ups in the semifinals, Venezuela beat the United States 10-6 in Miami to win the other pool. Both advanced to the semifinals.
The US first baseman Adam Dunn made a wild throw that led to four unearned runs. Max Ramirez had a three-run homer for Venezuela, which finished with 15 hits.
Japanese starter Hisashi Iwakuma held the Cubans scoreless over six innings, where he scattered five hits. "I was trying to keep the ball down. I was more interested in getting them to drive the ball into the ground than getting strike outs," Iwakuma said.
Cuban centre fielder Yoennis Cespedes' error in the top of the fourth when he dropped a flyball from infielder Michihiro Ogasawara allowed two runs to score and proved costly for the Cubans.
The error, caused when the ball bounced out of Cespedes' glove, hit him on the head and dropped to the ground, allowed Norichaka Aoki and Atsunori Inaba to score and drove Cuban starter Yunieski Maya from the game. Japan added another run in the fifth after two walks and an RBI single from Norichaka Aoki, who had four hits in the game and drove in two runs.
Japan added its fourth run in the seventh before Ichiro Suzuki, who had been in a batting slump throughout most of the second round, scored the final run after hitting a one-out triple in the top of the ninth.
Cuba, the runner up to Japan at the inaugural WBC in 2006, and last year's Olympic silver medalists, had not finished lower than third in 70 years of international baseball tournaments. The worst it had done during that span were third place finishes in the IBAF World Cup in 1944 and 1951.
"This was a very meaningful event for our team and it's something that will go down in the history of Japanese baseball," Japanese manager Tatsunori Hara said.
In a battle that will determine the match-ups in the semifinals, Venezuela beat the United States 10-6 in Miami to win the other pool. Both advanced to the semifinals.
The US first baseman Adam Dunn made a wild throw that led to four unearned runs. Max Ramirez had a three-run homer for Venezuela, which finished with 15 hits.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
