MIAMI — Depending on one’s perspective, it was the perfect ending to the most perfect baseball tournament ever.
Team Japan star Shohei Ohtani, the greatest all-around player, maybe ever, faced down Team USA captain Mike Trout, the most decorated star of the past quarter century, to decide which baseball superpower is most powerful.
In the showdown for the ages between the Angels teammates, Ohtani wound up whiffing Trout on a brilliant 3-and-2 slider to close out the World Baseball Classic for Team Japan, a 3-2 winner over Team USA at loanDepot Park on Tuesday night. The confrontation seemed like something out of a Hollywood script in a tournament that captured the attention — and imagination — of fans around the globe.
“Everyone wanted to see the matchup. Obviously, it didn’t go the way I wanted it to,” Trout said. “He won round one. You can’t take anything away from him. To be able to come out of the bullpen, as a starter — that’s Sho-time.”
“Whether I got him out or he got a hit off me, I didn’t want to make any regrets. I wanted to make my best pitch,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.
The multi-talented Ohtani hit well in the tournament, but surely won the MVP trophy for that encounter among all-time greats.
“This is the best moment in my life,” Ohtani said through a translator.
Team USA manager Mark DeRosa noticed Ohtani didn’t look fazed even after opening the inning by walking the Mets’ Jeff McNeil with the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts and Trout coming up. Betts grounded into a double play before the standoff everyone wanted to see.
“He’s got nasty stuff. He’s throwing 101, 102. He threw me a good pitch at the end,” Trout said. “You tip your cap to him.”
Trout mentioned how proud he was to represent the U.S., and DeRosa said how proud he was of his troops. Indeed, the team did us proud. It just came up against a player for the ages — a two-way phenomenon who was unfazed by the situation and managed to seal Japan’s third WBC title in five events.
“The baseball world won tonight,” DeRosa said. “I just wish it would have [ended] differently. I was hoping Mikey was going to pop one out.”
A full house, with patriotism and passion filling the stands, and a worldwide audience expected to rank among the biggest ever helped put a neat exclamation point on a WBC that was almost an unqualified hit even before the game’s greatest talents decided things.
The defending champion Team USA came close to repeating, which produced several surprises, exciting finishes and eye-opening individual performances — especially from Trea Turner, who turned into an almost unstoppable force a little more than three months after signing with the Phillies. In the end, however, a succession of less-heralded Japanese pitchers, plus set-up man Yu Darvish and finally Ohtani made the difference. The drama and tension couldn’t have been higher.
“The two best players locking horns as teammates in that spot … it never usually plays out like that,” DeRosa said.
The WBC has come a long way. Enthusiasm, excitement and occasional protest in previous rounds drew additional attention, and it doesn’t hurt that the United States and Japan — the sport’s superpowers — made it to the finale, playing for the title for the first time.
A near-record home audience was thought possible, although the 8:24 a.m. start in Japan probably stifled any chance at an all-time record for any baseball game. Player interest was only surpassed by fan enthusiasm.
Chants of “USA,” could be heard during the finale, but Japanese fans were in full force, too. Drums and horns provided a steady soundtrack to a game that settled the question over which country has the sport’s best team — at least until the next WBC in 2026. Everyone will be looking forward to that event. But it will be tough to top this one.
“This thing is real,” DeRosa said of the event.
Team USA’s vaunted lineup, which produced 23 runs over the previous two games to reach the finals, was slowed by seven Japanese pitchers from their superb, deep and unyielding staff, before superstar closer-for-a-day Ohtani finished things off.
Turner stayed the hottest hitter in the tournament, sending his fourth homer in three games into the left-field bleachers, which he has owned the past few days here. But while Turner may have been the best hitter in the event, with five total home runs, there’s little doubt Japan earned the trophy in winning the first finale ever between everyone’s favorites.
Japan finished the event a perfect 7-0 with its first great scare coming in the semifinal the night before against Mexico, which beat USA in pool play and nearly pulled off the upset of the pre-event favorite.
The finale was billed as defending champion Team USA’s lineup of All-Stars versus Japan’s all-time great pitching staff. Japan won it by using mostly a succession of lesser-known but still talented pitchers, beginning with surprise starter Shota Imanaga, who got the nod over the Padres’ star Darvish.
“Credit to them,” DeRosa said. “They were bringing in some nasty dudes.”
Japan saved the nastiest for last. And it made for an awesome and almost unreal ending.
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