{"id":209084,"date":"2026-03-07T14:45:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209084\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T14:45:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T14:45:30","slug":"shohei-ohtanis-grand-slam-gets-japan-roaring-in-wbc-opener-in-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209084\/","title":{"rendered":"Shohei Ohtani’s grand slam gets Japan roaring in WBC opener in Tokyo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The last time Shohei Ohtani was seen wearing a World Baseball Classic uniform with \u201cJapan\u201d across his chest, he was striking out Mike Trout<\/a> of the United States on a ninth-inning, full-count slider to give his country a victory in the championship game three years ago. <\/p>\n

So much has happened in Ohtani\u2019s life between then and now. He has a wife and a daughter, a new interpreter, a new Major League team, two World Series championships and three more Most Valuable Player awards.<\/p>\n

Yet unforgettable WBC memories continue. This time, he delivered from the batter\u2019s box instead of the pitcher\u2019s mound. <\/p>\n

In the second inning of Japan\u2019s WBC opener against Chinese Taipei on Friday at the Tokyo Dome, Ohtani smacked a hanging curve a few feet over the right-field wall for a grand slam<\/a>, triggering an offensive onslaught that resulted in a 13-0 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it might land as an out, so above all, I really wanted to get the first run on the board,\u201d Ohtani told reporters afterward<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Ohtani led off the game with a double and singled in his second at-bat of the second inning, when Japan put up a WBC-record 10 runs. He added a run-scoring single in the third inning, giving him five runs batted in. <\/p>\n

In 2023, Ohtani hit and pitched Japan to the WBC title, batting .435 with eight RBIs and allowing only two earned runs in 9 2\/3 innings on the mound. This year, he will only bat, saving his pitching<\/a> for the Dodgers<\/a>, who begin their quest for a third consecutive World Series title in three weeks.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s starting pitcher Friday was a decorated Dodger nevertheless. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, MVP of the 2025 World Series<\/a>, threw 2 2\/3 scoreless innings, walking three and striking out two while giving up no hits. <\/p>\n

His command wasn\u2019t pinpoint \u2014 he threw 53 pitches, 33 for strikes \u2014 but it is still spring training, even though the atmosphere was electric for Japanese players competing in front of a crowd of 42,314 that included actor Timothee Chalamet and superstar Bad Bunny.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cI know there will be some tough battles ahead, but if the fans and the team can unite and everyone can help build the excitement together, it will really encourage us,\u201d Ohtani said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The last time Shohei Ohtani was seen wearing a World Baseball Classic uniform with \u201cJapan\u201d across his chest,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,42870,83761,2424,96337,23932,6763,10252,10250,88414,422,16234,8934,96253,96338,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-209084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-championship-game","12":"tag-first-run","13":"tag-friday","14":"tag-grand-slam","15":"tag-innings","16":"tag-japan","17":"tag-mound","18":"tag-ohtani","19":"tag-second-inning","20":"tag-shohei-ohtani","21":"tag-tokyo","22":"tag-victory","23":"tag-wbc-opener","24":"tag-world-baseball-classic-opener","25":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209084","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=209084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}