Japan Flash

The second World Baseball Classic (WBC) played second match in Group A on March 7, 2009. Japanese batting blast leads by Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle Mariners). Japan won over South Korea 14-2 with just seven-inning played, and decided to enter second round which will be held in US on March 16, 2009. Japanese team were able to hit South Korea’s left arm pitcher, Kim Gwan Hyon, that was made Japan having a bad match in last Beijing Olympics. Leads by Ichiro Suzuki that was able to bring back his best performance, Japanese team is moving ahead to pretend their championship.

In first inning, following Ichiro this season’s first hit, Japan made a 3 point lead with Aoki (Yakult) and Uchikawa (Yokohama) timely hit. South Korean starter pitcher, Kim Gwan Hyon was changed with only second inning after gave Japan base on balls and 3 point homerun by 4th batter Murata (Yokohama). In the middle innings, Japan also added points by South Korea’s bad defence, Nakajima timely hit and Jojima (Mariners) 2 point homerun.

Japanese team has been learnt from last year’s Beijing Olympics bad match against South Korean pitcher Kim Gwan Hyon. In this match, Japan changed their lineups with right handed batter dominated lineups, such as Murata as 4th batter and Uchikawa as 6th batter. These changes makes Japan’s batting better and won against South Korea 14-2. Japanese starting pitcher Matsuzaka lost 2 points in his first inning, but after two innings continued by Watanabe (Lotte), Sugiuchi (Softbank) and Iwata (Hanshin Tigers) did not lost any point.

Next match, Japan will played against China-South Korea match winner to fight for first place in Group A of 2009 World Baseball Classic on March 9, 2009.