The cap worn by Shohei Ohtani when he struck out Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout in the title game of the World Baseball Classic is headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The strikeout ended Japan’s 3-2 victory over the U.S. for the WBC championship. Padre Yu Darvish also threw an inning before Ohtani came in to pitch the ninth.
Ohtani’s cap is among the artifacts from the tournament headed to the Hall of Fame, including the spikes worn by former Dodger Trea Turner when he hit a tournament-record tying five home runs.
Ohtani entered Tuesday’s game for his first relief appearance since 2016, when he played for the Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan’s Pacific League, and walked the first batter he faced, New York Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil, a former Long Beach State standout.
The next batter, Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts, grounded into a double play.
Ohtani fell behind on the count, 2-1, but rebounded and Trout swung and missed at an 87.2 mph slider for the third strike.
The deal threat was selected as the tournament’s MVP, and as both pitcher and designated hitter on the All-Classic Team. Ohtani was 2-0 with one save and a 1.86 ERA while batting a team-best .435 with 1 home run and 8 RBIs.
“I believe this is the best moment in my life and just because we won today, though,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.
U.S. manager Mark DeRosa said he “was hoping it would end a little bit different with Mike popping one, but the baseball world won tonight.”
Trout was 1-for-5 with three strikeouts before a capacity crowd of 36,098 at loanDepot Park in Miami. He doubled in his first at-bat, but did not advance as St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt struck out and Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado grounded out.
The U.S. took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Turner’s home run which tied the record set by Seung-yuop Lee of South Korea in the inaugural 2006 tournament.
Japan tied the score in the bottom of the second on Munetaka Murakami’s leadoff homer against starter Merrill Kelly. Japan then loaded the bases with one out on singles by Kazuma Okamoto and Sosuke Genda and a walk to its No. 9 hitter, Yuhei Nakamura.
DeRosa then replaced Kelly with Angels reliever Aaron Loup.
St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar, a former USC and El Segundo High standout, grounded out to Goldschmidt, driving in Okamoto with the go-ahead run. Nootbaar was eligible to play for Japan because his mother is Japanese.
Japan increased its lead to 3-1 when Okamoto homered leading off the third, but the Americans cut the deficit to 3-2 on Kyle Schwarber’s eighth-inning homer off Darvish.
Darvish was the only Padre in the final. Nick Martinez had played for the U.S. but left the team before the weekend semifinals.
A number of Padres participated, but those teams, including the Dominican Republic, with Manny Machado, were eliminated in earlier stages.
The championship was Japan’s third in the tournament’s five editions. Japan also won the championship in each of the first two tournaments, 2006 and 2009 (Darvish was also on the ’09 team).
The U.S. won in its lone previous title game appearance in 2017 (the 2021 tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Japan completed the tournament 7-0 and received $3 million to be split between its players and national baseball federation. The U.S. went 5-2. It received $1.7 million.
The tournament will next be played in 2026.
– City News Service
