The two teams, representing the world’s two longstanding baseball superpowers, entered the field at loanDepot Park on Tuesday in a single file from each outfield corner. The United States walked in from right field. Japan was across the way. Leading the line for each star-studded group were the two best players in the world.
Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the captains, carried their respective country’s flags. Three weeks ago, they were Angels teammates in spring training together. They’ll be together again in Arizona by the end of the week, going through the final preparations for the Angels’ crucial season. But on Tuesday they were opponents for the World Baseball Classic championship, the biggest game of their baseball lives.
Trout’s role for the night was known from the outset. It was the same as always. Batting second and playing center field. Ohtani was a different, mysterious story. The two-way star was again batting third as Japan’s designated hitter. Looming, however, was the chance that he would emerge from the bullpen to pitch with the game on the line. Maybe even against Trout.
It was a scintillating possibility. Almost too good to be true. And yet it happened in Japan’s captivating 3-2 win. Ohtani emerged from Japan’s bullpen in left field, his uniform dirty from attempting to break up a double play earlier in the game, just after 10:30 pm to protect a one-run lead, three outs from securing the championship. It was his first relief appearance since 2016. Due up in the top of the ninth inning for Team USA: Jeff McNeil, Mookie Betts, and Trout.
McNeil began the inning by working a seven-pitch walk. The weight of the moment was evident; McNeil hopped down the line, turning to scream into the US dugout. But the momentum quickly evaporated. Two pitches later, Betts grounded into a double play. Suddenly, Team USA was down to one out and the baseball world got the matchup it thirsted for.
Ohtani started the clash with a slider off the plate for ball one. The next four pitches were fastballs. 100 mph, 100 mph, 100 mph, 102 mph. Trout swung through the first, took the second for a ball, struck through the third, and laid off the fourth to bring the battle to the finish line. Full count.
The right-hander went with what he started: an 87-mph slider. This one was perfectly placed. A borderline strike way from Trout. The three-time AL MVP, a surefire Hall of Famer with 15 career playoff plate appearances, swung and missed. Strike three. Game over. Ohtani threw his glove and hat to the ground as his teammates rushed to mob him.
“Regardless of whether I gave up a hit or got an out, I thought I wanted to throw the kinds of pitches that wouldn’t leave me with any regrets,” Ohtani said in Japanese during the FS1. “He’s a great hitter. I’m glad I was somehow able to get him out.”
Ohtani’s exploits sealed an undefeated 7-0 tournament run for Japan. The country became the first to win the WBC three times. The US, the defending tournament champion, finished 5-2. Ohtani unsurprisingly was named the tournament MVP.
Most eyes in Japan were on the game. A popular high school baseball tournament at Koshien Stadium in Osaka – home of the Hanshin Tigers with a capacity of 50,000 – was sparsely attended. Japanese media speculated it was because people were at home watching the national team. With good reason: 62 million people – nearly half the country’s population – watched Japan’s win over South Korea in pool play. That number alone was more than the most-watched World Series game ever. The hype for Tuesday was bigger.
Team USA was on the Japanese team’s mind long before the tournament started. Last August, Japan’s manager Hideki Kuriyama, Ohtani’s manager with the Nippon-Ham Fighters before he signed with the Angels, traveled to the United States for a part recruiting, part scouting trip.
Kuriyama wanted to meet with potential WBC participants in the majors and learn about American players. Kuriyama found that speed is king here and American hitters are dangerous. Along the way he worked to secure the top target on his list: Ohtani, the two-way generational talent Kuriyama has mentored since he turned pro.
Ohtani has dominated Major League Baseball over the past two seasons, surpassing any possible expectations since arriving from Japan, while cultivating a respect for the competition. He viewed Tuesday’s meeting as the best possible opportunity to prove Japan remains a top-tier baseball power.
“They’re the ultimate opponents for the ultimate stage,” he said to MLB Network on Monday night after Japan defeated Mexico in the semifinals.
On Tuesday, minutes before taking the field, Japan’s most famous athlete, an icon who has yet to celebrate his 30th birthday, stepped up to deliver a brief poignant speech to his team in the clubhouse.
“From me, just one thing,” Ohtani said. “Let’s stop admiring them. [Paul] Goldschmidt will be at first base; if you look at center, Mike Trout is there; Mookie Betts is in the outfield. There are players known by anyone who plays baseball.
“For just one day… if you admire them, you can’t surpass them. We came here to surpass them, to reach the top. For one day, let’s throw away our admiration for them and just think about winning.”
Ohtani has been credited with helping recruit veteran right-hander Yu Darvish, who participated in his first WBC in 2009, blowing a save in the final game before earning the save in a win over South Korea. The 36-year-old Darvish, the oldest member of the team, then chose to become the only major league to attend Japan’s training camp last month over reporting to spring training to create a sense of camaraderie with the younger players.
Darvish, like Ohtani, was available to pitch Tuesday after pitching in the quarterfinals Thursday. The Angels, however, would allow Ohtani, who had never pitched on less than five days’ rest, to pitch just one inning, limiting him to a relief appearances.
The San Diego Padres, on the other hand, cleared Darvish to pitch without any known limitations. As a result, he was expected to start, but Japan surprisingly chose to start left-hander Shota Imanaga.
“I don’t know the plan at all,” Darvish said before the game. “It all depends on how the game plays out.”
Darvish walked to Japan’s bullpen during the fifth inning Tuesday. Ohtani, Japan’s designated hitter, followed him before the start of the sixth. The movement sparked attention. Time was running out for the US and two of the best pitchers in the world were potentially waiting.
By then, Japan had a 3-1 lead. US shortstop Trea Turner opened the scoring with another home run – his fifth of the tournament – off Imanga. The five home runs, four of which came in Team USA’s three knockout stage games, tied the record for a single WBC.
The lead was fleeting. Japan tied the score on a solo home run from Munetaka Murakami, the slugger who delivered the walk-off double to beat Mexico in the semifinals the previous night, off of US starter Merrill Kelly. Later in the inning, after Angels left-hander Aaron Loup replaced Kelly, Lars Nootbaar, the first player not born in Japan to ever play on its national baseball team, gave Japan a 2-1 lead with an RBI groundout.
Kazume Okamoto’s solo home run against left-hander Kyle Freeland doubled the margin in the fourth inning. From there, the teams went scoreless for three innings until the eighth when Darvish took the mound.
Darvish’s only previous experience in a winner-take-all championship was his disastrous start in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series for the Dodgers. He gave up five runs in 1 ⅔ innings. The Dodgers lost, and Darvish was blamed.
Darvish was wobbly again Tuesday. Kyle Schwarber cut Team USA’s deficit to one when he blasted a solo home run to the second deck with one out. Turner then singled. But this time Darvish avoided a debacle. JT Realmuto popped out and Cedric Mullins flew out to end the threat. Japan’s dugout erupted. The lead remained intact for Ohtani.
Ohtani needed 14 pitches to add another unprecedented accomplishment to his ledger. Never has modern baseball seen a talent like him. On Tuesday, with the baseball world watching, he proved it again.
Times columnist Dylan Hernández contributed to this story.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.