Team China keeps it interesting, but loses first game to Team Japan, 4-0, in WBC opener

Yu Darvish pitched brilliantly against Team China
(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

China and Japan met tonight in a matchup between one of the favorites of the tournament and one of the weakest teams, and for the first few innings it was closely fought before Japan blew the doors open with a three-run third inning.

Yu Darvish did extremely well in his first WBC outing, holding China hitless, as I predicted he might. Ichiro continued his cold start, but Shuichi Murata was the hero with a mammoth two-run shot.

Team Japan made the Chinese pitchers look much better than they are, as their hitters are either not quite ready for prime time or they relaxed far too much against a team they expected to thrash.

This felt more like a showdown between two closely matched teams, not one of the best and one of the worst teams in the tourney.

China had much to be proud of—had they not made a few errors, and if they'd had better hitting, this game might have turned out differently.

Here were the lineups to start tonight's Japan-China WBC game, the first of the Classic:

China

1. Lingfeng Sun CF
2. Fenglian Hou DH
3. Ray Chang SS
4. Fei Feng RF
5. Chao Wang LF
6. Guangbiao Liu 2B
7. Fujia Chu 1B
8. Delong Jia 3B
9. Zhenwang Zhang C

Japan

1. Ichiro Suzuki RF
2. Hiroyuki Nakajima SS
3. Norichika Aoki LF
4. Atsunori Inaba DH
5. Shuichi Murata 3B
6. Michihiro Ogasawara 1B
7. Kosuke Fukudome CF
8. Kenji Johjima C
9. Akinori Iwamura 2B

No incredible surprises from the Chinese lineup, but several in the Japanese lineup. I kept seeing Fukudome referred to as "Team Japan's centerfielder" in photo captions and wanted to write to AP to call them a pack of idiots—turns out I'm the idiot. But I'd always considered Aoki the superior defender. Yomiuri Giants manager Tatsunori Hara (managing instead of Saduharu Oh because of Oh's battle with stomach cancer) clearly believes differently.

Iwamura makes sense at the bottom of the lineup as a second leadoff guy, though Nakajima's awfully weak as a #2 hitter. And clearly the decision was made to push Aoki to left rather than start Seiichi Uchikawa.

Hara said in an interview that he wanted good on-base skills from his first three hitters, slugging from his next three, and "the unexpected" from his bottom three. That seems to about sum up his batting order.

RECAP:

Top 1st: Darvish looked polished in the first, with the first two hitters grounding out weakly, to first and third, respectively. Both Sun and Hou are fast runners, and Hou only got nipped by Murata's throw. Ray Chang was the only hitter to get serious wood on a foul, but he struck out looking. China 0, Japan 0.

Bottom 1st: Ichiro slapped at a low pitch to the first baseman Chu, who scooped the ball easily to the pitcher coming over to cover, getting Ichiro by a step. Nakajima showed nice patience to run the count to 3-1, but swung late at a high fastball to fill the count. After fouling a pitch off, Nakajima took an outside pitch that barely missed the plate for ball four. Aoki ripped a high 1-1 fastball down the right field line for a double, moving Nakajima to 3B with one out.

Needing only to lift a fly ball to the outfield, Inaba swung over an 0-2 splitter for strike three. Murata, up next, ripped a 1-0 pitch just foul, then lifted the next pitch to right for the third out, and Li escaped trouble. China 0, Japan 0.

Top 2nd: Darvish struck out Feng easily, but ran into difficulty with Wang. He ran the count to 3-0 before filling the count with two strikes, and Wang fouled a pitch off before taking ball 4. With the first baserunner of the night, China waited all of one pitch before sending Wang, and Johjima gunned him down at second with a beautiful throw for the second out. Liu tapped a 2-0 pitch to 2B and was retired for the third out. China 0, Japan 0.

Bottom 2nd: Ogasawara, leading off the inning, laced a 2-1 pitch past Guangbiao Liu for a clean single. Li fell behind Fukudome 3-0 before Fukudome fouled one off and then took ball four.

With two runners on and one out, Kenji Johjima rapped a 1-1 pitch sharply to Liu at 2B for a crisply turned double play. Akinori Iwamura then faced Liu with Ogasawara on third and two outs, needing only a single to score the game's first run, but broke his bat on an inside pitch to send another ball to Liu, who threw him out easily to retire the side. China 0, Japan 0.

Top 3rd: Chu jumped on an inside offering to send a ball to the gap, but Ichiro got a great jump on it and chased it down, keeping the slate clean for Darvish. The play seemed to give Darvish confidence as he mowed down the next two hitters. Jia rapped the second pitch sharply back to Darvish for the second out of the inning. And Zhang could only smile as Darvish blew three straight pitches past him to send China down 1-2-3. China 0, Japan 0.

Bottom 3rd: Ichiro would lead off again, trying to live up to the baseball cliche of good wood following good leather, but instead grounded out to third. It appeared that his early-season WBC slump is continuing, as he looked very defensive.

After fouling off the first pitch, Nakajima took four straight pitches for a walk, and stole second on the very first pitch. Ray Chang nearly made a great play on a high throw from Zhang, leaping above the bag and making the tag between his legs, but Nakajima slid in safely.

That base would be crucial, as Aoki hit a sinking line drive to center field, but Sun misplayed the ball, charging in too quickly, and the ball bounced just in front of him, then skipped past him. It was a clean single that might have scored Nakajima regardless, and Sun was probably thinking about the play at the plate. Japan 1, China 0.

Instead, Aoki's single turned into a triple, Nakajima scored anyway, and Inaba came to the plate with one out and a runner on third. With the infield in, Inaba took a 2-2 pitch back up the middle, and Ray Chang made a nice spinning play to cut down Aoki at home for the second out.

Inaba advanced to second on a wild pitch as Li kept bouncing pitches to Murata, who worked the count full after falling behind 1-2. Murata's stroke looks much more like an MLB cut instead of the kendo-inspired NPB swing, and he took Li's next pitch for a two-run homer. Japan 3, China 0.

Ogasawara, feeling the home run-vibe, jacked a ball to deep left, but it fell just short, and Wang gloved it for the third out. Japan 3, China 0.

Top 4th: Back at the top of the order, Sun would work Darvish for a 3-1 count before lifting an easy fly to left, and there was one away. Hou grounded to second base for an easy second out, while Chang ripped a low liner that Murata picked up to retire the side. Japan 3, China 0.

Bottom 4th: With 27-year-old Lefty Junyi Chen now on the hill, Fukudome worked him to a full count, then walked. Johjima rapped a sharp grounder up the middle, and Chang barely managed to glove it, bobbled it, but still got Fukudome at second.

Johjima advanced to second on a passed ball on the first pitch to Aki, who hit a Texas Leaguer that Ray Chang muffed, allowing Aki to get to second, though Johjima could only get to third.

Ichiro, with two on and one out and first base open, was patient, then swatted a 3-1 pitch into the ground. With the infield in, Liu fielded the ball and came home to get Johjima in a rundown.

Ichiro advanced to second on the rundown, and China elected to walk the right-handed Nakajima to load the bases to face the lefty Aoki. On the very first pitch, the left fielder hit a hard shot to the hole, but Chu laid out and snatched the line drive out of the air for the third out. Japan 3, China 0.

Top 5th: With China still hitless, Hara brought in righty Hideaki Wakui to start the fifth, and gives up the first hit to China as Feng dumps the ball into short right field. Wakui's stuff is different from Darvish's, lacking the velocity but with more movement on his pitches. Wang quickly erases the baserunner by breaking his bat on a ball to Iwamura, who turns the 4-6-3 DP, and Liu also breaks his bat on a slow roller to Nakajima, who guns him down to retire the side. Japan 3, China 0.

Bottom 5th: Inaba grounded out weakly to Chu at 1B for the first out, and Murata tried to go yard for the second straight inning, but the ball barely reached the warning track. Ogasawara followed suit by lifting an easy fly to left, and Japan was retired in order for the first time tonight. Japan 3, China 0.

Top 6th: Chu bluffed a bunt on the first pitch—when's the last time you've seen a first baseman bunting?—before grounding the ball by the mound. Ogasawara fielded the ball as Wakui raced to first, and they barely nipped he speedy Chu, who runs very well for a first baseman. Jia also grounded to the right side, but this time Wakui fielded it and tossed it to Ogasawara to get the second out. Wakui blew away Zhang, caught looking for the second time tonight. Japan 3, China 0.

Bottom 6th: Fukudome walked to lead off the inning, his third free pass of the night, and China made a pitching change, bringing in Guoqiang Sun, a 37-year-old submarining righty, to face Kenji Johjima. The second pitch got past Zhang, and Fukudome advanced to second—Sun's pitches had a lot of movement on them, and Zhang had trouble with several.

Johjima also walked, bringing up Iwamura with two on and no out. But Iwamura seemed to also have trouble reading Sun's pitches, as he struck out looking.

Ichiro grounded a ball up the middle, leading to a fielder's choice at second, for the second out. With runners at the corners, Sun faked a throw to first without leaving the rubber, a double balk, which sent Ichiro to second and Johjima home. Japan 4, China 0.

Nakajima , who had walked three times on the night, finally got to hit, and grounded the ball to third, and China retired the side. Japan 4, China 0.

Top 7th: Team Japan made another pitching change, bringing in the lefty Tetsuya Yamaguchi, closer for the Yomiuri Giants. Facing Sun, he had the leadoff hitter struck out, but Johjima couldn't hold onto the third strike, giving Sun another chance. Sun literally threw his bat at an outside pitch, lifting it over third base for a weak hit.

Hou erased Sun by grounding sharply to Iwamura, who turned their second DP of the night, and Hara took Yamaguchi out, bringing in Masahiro Tanaka, a twenty-year-old righty who's well-known from his success in high school. Ray Chang promptly lined a 1-1 pitch into center for his first hit.

Feng fouled one back, but Johjima couldn't handle it up against the fence, and Feng got another life. But he grounded to Nakajima at short, and he threw it easily to Iwamura covering second, retiring the side. Japan 4, China 0.

Bottom 7th: Aoki led off the frame, striking out for the first out, but Inaba followed this up with a ringing double to center. But Murata struck out, too, bringing up Ogasawara, who flied out to shallow center for the third out. Japan 4, China 0.

Top 8th: Hara brought in Takaharo Mahara, the closer for the Dahei Hawks, who got Wang to ground up the middle. Nakajima, going deep up the middle, threw out Wang easily. Liu tried Nakajima deep in the hole, but the shortstop couldn't get enough on the throw to gun out Liu.

Chu grounded to Ogasawara, who got the runner at second, but Chu was too swift for Team Japan to turn the double play. Hao Chen, pinch-hitting for Delong Jia, nearly shot a ball down the left field line but, for the second time tonight, Murata made a great play to save extra bases and eliminate the threat from China. Japan 4, China 0.

Bottom 8th: China made some defensive substitutions to start the inning, bringing in Fujia Zhang at 3B to replace Hao Chen, and changing pitchers, to bring in Kai Liu. Liu promptly walked Fukudome, and Hara brought in Yasuyuki Kataoka as a pinch-runner.

Kataoka stole second base, but was gunned down when Johjima hit a grounder to Chang and Kataoka inexplicably broke for third. Once again, Hara brings in a pinch-runner, with Yoshiyuki Kamei running for Johjima. Iwamura lifted a fly to deep left for the second out, with Kamei still on first. Ichiro flew out to right field to go 0-5 on the day. Japan 4, China 0.

Top 9th: With the pinch-runners, Japan had several defensive changes. Kamei would play left, Aoki would move to center, Kamei would take over at second for Iwamura, Shinnosuke Abe came in behind the dish, and Kyuji Fujikawa would come in to pitch.

China's last chance started with Yang Yang pinch-hitting for Zhang, and smacked a single into right field. Sun lifted an easy fly into center for the first out, and Hou rapped one back to Fujikawa, who threw to second for the first out, unable to turn two. Ray Chang, as the last batter of the night, was rung up on a check swing for the final out. Japan 4, China 0.

Not the result Japanese fans expected, and China has to be overjoyed at how well they did. Japan didn't take advantage of its many opportunities—they would leave 24 runners on base—but it pitched well and made few mistakes. They'll have to hit a lot better than this in the next game against Korea, but they should feel lucky that they faced China in this game and not a tougher team.

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