{"id":207441,"date":"2026-03-06T14:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207441\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:48:07","slug":"shohei-ohtani-hits-grand-slam-for-japan-in-world-baseball-classic-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/207441\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani hits grand slam for Japan in World Baseball Classic \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japanese fans<\/a> don\u2019t get to see\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/a>\u00a0in person very often. They got an eyeful on Friday in a sellout at the Tokyo Dome.<\/p>\n

Ohtani hit a grand slam in the second inning \u2014 in the first he doubled on the first pitch of the game but didn\u2019t score \u2014 as Japan hammered Taiwan 13-0 in Pool C at the\u00a0World Baseball Classic<\/a>. It was Japan\u2019s first game of four in pool play.<\/p>\n

The game was called after seven innings under the mercy rule<\/a>, which is being used in the WBC. The game is called after five innings if a team leads by 15 runs or more<\/a>, or after seven if the lead is 10 or more.<\/p>\n

After threatening in the first, Japan exploded for 10 runs in the second inning.<\/p>\n

Japan, batting first as the designated visiting team, put the first three runners on base \u2014 a walk, a single and a hit-by-pitch. Kenya Wakatsuki fouled out to the catcher, bringing up Ohtani for the dramatic slam to right field off starter Hao-Chun Cheng.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLos Angeles Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani earned his third straight MVP award, repeating as unanimous NL MVP\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Japan added six more runs in the inning, which lasted 28 minutes. Reliever Chih-Wei Hu finished the inning, but not before Japan batted around and Ohtani got his third hit of the game \u2014 a single \u2014 and his fifth RBI in the inning.<\/p>\n

And only two innings had been played.<\/p>\n

Japan scored three more in the third, this time off the third pitcher, Tzu-Chen Sha, to push the lead to 13-0.<\/p>\n

Left in the shadows was Japan\u2019s starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>, last season\u2019s World Series MVP with the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After long rests between innings, Yamamoto got into trouble in the third, walking two and loading the bases with the help of an error. He was replaced by Shoma Fujihira who struck out An-Ko Lin to end the threat.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto struck out three, walked two and allowed no hits and was the winner. Cheng got the loss.<\/p>\n

Ohtani led off the fourth and lined out on a leaping catch by first baseman Nien-Ting Wu as he tried for the cycle \u2014 a single, double, triple and a home run. He needed a triple to complete the cycle, and the leaping catch might have prevented it.<\/p>\n

Japan is the defending WBC champion<\/a> and the favorite from\u00a0Pool C\u00a0to reach the quarterfinals. Japan is also a favorite to reach the final in Miami on March 17, perhaps against\u00a0the United States<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Saturday in Pool C, Taiwan faces the Czech Republic and Japan plays South Korea.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTeam USA is bringing a loaded roster to the 2026 World Baseball Classic, featuring some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball. Here\u2019s a look at the superstars set to represent the United States.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese fans don\u2019t get to see\u00a0Shohei Ohtani\u00a0in person very often. They got an eyeful on Friday in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,47,50,49,70458],"class_list":["post-207441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-world-baseball-classic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}