A choice selection from the article:

Then there was also the fact that every year during spring training, Matsui took the Yankees-beat writers out to dinner, perhaps the only Yankee in the history of the franchise to do such a thing. And at the end of the first such dinner, he handed out gifts to each of the correspondents, including items from his personal collection of adult videos. New York writers can be merciless, especially to newcomers who do not live up to their hype. But when Matsui, hailed as the Babe Ruth from Japan, struggled in the early going, the New York press was less vitriolic than one might have expected. Perhaps it was the porn effect.

Another enjoyable read by Robert Whiting even if he does refer to Yomiuri as the “Tokyo Giants”. Head on over and read the rest.

Daisuke Matsuzaka started this one for Japan, and while not at his best, did enough to take his record in WBC play to 6-0 in his six career starts. Daisuke threw 98 pitches, two off the limit for the final set of games, going 4 and 2/3 innings of five hit two run baseball with four strikeouts and three walks.

The USA opened up the scoring in the top of the 1st, as first man to the plate, second baseman Brian Roberts blasted a leadoff shot over the centrefield wall to make it 0-1 USA.

Japan tied things up in the bottom of the 2nd. DH and cleanup Atsunori Inaba worked a walk to occupy first with no outs. Ogasawara then singled to left with Inaba hustling to third to put men on the corners with none away.  After Fukudome flew out too shallow to score Inaba, next man up Johjima got the job done properly with a deep sac-fly to right, which allowed the run to come home for 1-1.

But the USA would edge their noses ahead again in the top of the 3rd inning. Jimmy Rollins hit a two out single and then promptly stole second to put a man in scoring position. David Wright then worked the count full, before hitting a double to score Rollins and it was 1-2 USA.

But in the bottom of the 4th Japan blew the game wide open.  Consecutive singles from Inaba and Ogasawara off USA starter Roy Oswalt put men on first and second with no outs. Fukudome then hit a ball between first and second that had double play written all over it, but second baseman Roberts made a hash of it (ruled an error), allowing Inaba to score for 2-2 and Ogasawara to reach third.  Johjima then hit his second sac-fly of the game to put Japan ahead 3-2 with one out. Next man up Akinori Iwamura hit a triple to score Fukudome and make it 4-2 Japan. But Japan’s batters weren’t quite done with Oswalt yet. Third baseman Kawasaki, in for the injured Murata, singled to bring home Iwamura for 5-2 Japan.  After Ichiro grounded out, moving Kawasaki along, shortstop Nakajima hit a double to bring him home and top off the scoring for the inning at 6-2 Japan.

That was the end of Oswalt’s game, and it should probably have been over much sooner as he’d pretty much completely lost the strike zone in the 4th inning, allowing Japan to dine-out at his expense.

After the departure of Matsuzaka, Sugiuchi (1 and 1/3 inning) and Tanaka (1 inning) kept the score at 6-2 before Mahara took the mound in the top of the 8th, and the American’s threatened to get back in the game.

Ryan Braun hit a one out double to leftfield, before Brian McCann earned a walk to put men on first and second. Mark DeRossa then hit another double to left, allowing Braun to score, and McCann to follow him home following an error from Aoki. Norichika lost the ball in the corner of the Dodger Stadium outfield, and also had to contend with a stadium staff and his chair, as the USA narrowed the deficit to 6-4.

But that was as close as they would get, as Japan pulled away in the bottom of the same inning. Fukudome earned a leadoff walk and was replaced with pinch-runner Kataoka. Johjima then layed down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Kataoka to second with one out. Kataoka would make it to third on a groundout from Iwamura. Kawasaki then hit one to shortstop Derek Jeter, but the Yankee overcooked his throw to first. Kataoka was home, Kawasaki was safe, Jeter had himself an error and most importantly it was 7-4 Japan with two outs.

More misery was to come for the USA though. Ichiro came to bat, Kawasaki stole second, then Japan’s favourite Baseball Son got his nightly “rise from your grave” hit, singling to score Kawasaki for 8-4. Nakajima then wrapped up the scoring for the game, hitting a double which, due to some extremely lackadaisical fielding from rightfielder Dunn, allowed Ichiro to power home from first. 9-4 Japan.

Rather surprisingly, in came Darvish to pitch the top of the 9th, and despite giving up a hit to the always dangerous Rollins, he got his three outs and it was 9-4 Final.

So Japan managed 9 runs off 10 hits, 1 error and 6 men left on base.

The USA managed 4 runs off their 9 hits, 3 errors and left 10 men on.

The man brought over to replace Murata, Hiroshima Carp Kenta Kurihara, made an appearance in the 7th inning, pinch hitting for DH Inaba. He struck out.

Aoki was hitless for the game with an error. Nakajima, Ogasawara and Kawasaki all had two hit games, the latter reminding manager Hara why he perhaps should have been in the starting lineup sooner.

And so it’s “Japan vs Korea V” in the 2009 Final. Japan will start with the classy right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma who has an 0.73 ERA in his 12 and 1/3 innings in the 2009 Classic thus far. Korea will counter with their “Japan-Killer”, Jung Keun Bong, who can boast a 0.66 ERA in his 13 and 2/3 innings work so far. Ominously for Japan, his two victories have both come against them.

It is a mouthwatering prospect to say the least, and should be quite a game. Whatever the result, Asian baseball can be very proud of it’s progress on the world stage in 2009.

The victory was based around strong pitching, with a majestic start from Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Japanese ace pitched 6 innings of five hit ball, striking out eight and walking none. Iwakuma, Mahara and Fujikawa pitched an inning each in relief to shut out the Cuban bats that had been so frightening in the previous round.

Hara made a couple of changes to the batting lineup, Kataoka replacing his Seibu teamate Nakajima at short, Ogasawara was the DH while Uchikawa started at first.  

Young pitching phenom Chapman started for the Cubans, a man who can throw a plus 100mph heater one pitch and follow it up with a sub 80mph breaking ball the next.  Chapman was not on his greatest form Sunday though, walking Ogasawara and Uchikawa in the 2nd, but escaped as he picked off the daydreaming Ogasawara at first followed by Uchikawa trying to steal second.

Japan got on the board in the top of the 3rd. Jojima hit a single to centre to lead off the inning. Iwamura singled to put men on first and second. Ichiro then layed down one of his trademark bunts, but Jojima’s lack of speed meant he was thrown out at third, to leave two men on with one out.

Kataoka then singled to load the bases, which was the last action Chapman saw as Cuba went to the bullpen. The new pitcher Gonzalez promptly threw two strikes past Aoki before a wild pitch allowed Iwamura to score from third and the runners to advance to make it 1-0 Japan. Aoki then blooped a single to right which allowed another run to score and it was 2-0. Next man Murata hit a sacrifice fily to right to allow Kataoka to score to make it 3-0 Japan.

The bottom of the 3rd saw the sun come into play, as Ichiro droped a Paret fly ball in foul territory for a rare error, followed by Jojima dropping one behind the plate for a second error. Matsuzaka then took matters into his own hands and struck out Paret looking to let his two teammates off the hook.

Japan added on a run in the 4th. The bright conditions came into play again as a Jojima fly ball to right was lost in the sun by the Cuban fightfielder Despaigne and Jojima was able to reach second. Iwamura then singled before Ichiro brought home Jojima for 4-0.

And another came in the 5th. Murata was hit by a pitch to put him on first with one out. Ogasawara hit a line drive to right, with Murata hustling on the basepaths to put men on first and third. Uchikawa then poked one through the middle to score his Yokohama teammate and extend the lead to 5-0.

Japan’s final run would come in the top of the 9th. Kawasaki, pinch hitting for Kataoka, singled before Aoki sac-bunted to move him to second with one out. Next man Murata then singled to score Kawasaka to bring the scoring to a close at 6-0.

So Japan managed 6 runs off 12 hits, 2 errors and 9 men left on base.

Cuba managed 0 runs off their 8 hits, 0 errors and left 6 men on.

Other points of note in the game:

Iwamura, who struggled in the Tokyo round, went 2 for 3 with a run and a walk, to add valuable production from the bottom of the order.

Ogasawara, while getting himself two hits still showed his chump-like tendencies by allowing himself to be picked off at first in the 2nd. Also, while on second base in the 5th, with Uchikawa on first and Fukudome at the plate, a wild pitch that should have allowed the runners to advance almost saw Uchikawa thrown out retreating to first. Ogasawara was seemingly daydreaming again and moved not a jot, as Uchikawa made the jump toward second. Sure, Uchikawa should have followed the lead (or lack of it) of the man at second, but it was an opportunity lost because of Ogasawara’s sloth-like reactions.  Fukudome eventually singled but that would only move the Yomiuri man to third, which is as far as he advanced that inning.

Jojima seems to have brought his good form from the last round with him as he went 2 for 4 with a run. Good news for fans of both Japan and the Mariners.

I opted to avoid the endless commercials by watching the game on Satellite TV instead of Japanese terrestrial coverage. MLB international supplied the footage and English commentary to boot. Aside from the continual botched pronnunciations (Norichika AYoki anyone?), it was interesting to note that whenever stats were listed on the screen for the Japanese, the Japanese league recieved a name change from NPB to NBL. I didn’t realise that I’d been watching the Nippon Baseball League all these years! Come on MLB, is it too hard to employ someone to make sure you get the simplest of things (such as the name of the Japanese equivalent of the MLB) right?

So Japan now get a day off to watch Cuba play the loser of the Mexico-Korea matchup, and they will play the winner of said game on Tuesday evening for a place in the semi-finals.

So now on to the big one. Korea came into Saturday’s game looking the more menacing of the two teams, after their 9-0 taking apart of Taipei the night before, while Japan had misfired offensively in their laboured 4-0 victory over China on Thursday.

Add that to the fact that Korea have tended to get the better of Japan in these matchups in recent times, and the game was a mouthwatering prospect indeed. And so it turned out to be, but just not in the way anyone had expected.

This was the game in which Japan started to look like the team they do on paper, stuffed with talent and experience and capable of some wonderful baseball.  They knocked around four Korean pitchers to the tune of 14 hits, scoring a whopping 14 runs to Korea’s 2, before the game was called after the 7th due to the mercy rule.

Ichiro broke out of his slump with three hits for the night, and the upturn in fortunes for Japan’s talisman seemed to light a fire under the rest of the lineup as everyone bar Ogasawara and Iwamura got in on the hitting act.

Murata (3RHR in the 2nd) and Jojima (2RHR  in the 6th) both went deep as the Japanese piled on the humiliation to their fiercest rivals.

Japan’s other RBIs came from Aoki (3), Nakajima (2), Uchikawa (2) and Ogasawara (1) while Japan’s other run was walked in by Korea.

Ex-Swallow Akinori Iwamura did contribute, despite going hitless, walking twice and eventually scoring both times.

Daisuke Matsuzaka started for Japan and overcame a wobbly 1st, in which he gave up a monster two run dinger to Korean firstbaseman Kim, but after that looked relatively stable in his remaining three scoreless innings.  Watanabe and Sugiuchi pitched hitless 5th and 6th innings respectively before Iwata came in for a shaky 7th, but the Koreans were well and truly stifled.

45,000 or so people were packed into Tokyo Dome for this one and I have to say, the atmosphere was possibly the best I have ever witnessed at a ballgame in Japan. Fans were keyed up and greeted every hit as though they’d just won the tournament itself. The (Mexican) wave even made an appearance late on, with the small band of travelling Korean fans in leftfield even joining in, much to the delight of the Japanese fans.

All in all, a wonderful night, and one I’ll remember for quite sometime to come.

Japan are now guaranteed a trip to the next round of the WBC in the US. They now have a day off before they meet the winner of Sundays’s elimination game between Korea and China on Monday evening to decide the No.1 and No.2 Asian round teams.

Videos from the game can be found here (complete with plenty of entertaining mispronunciations) as well as the video recap below.

Japan 14- Korea 2