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Japan. The Japan national baseball team began their participation in the 2026 World Baseball Classic with authority by overwhelmingly defeating the Chinese Taipei national baseball team 13-0 in Group C, in a match held at the Tokyo Dome.
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The great protagonist of the match was Shohei Ohtani, who ignited the Japanese fans with a spectacular "grand slam" in the second inning. The Japanese star had a brilliant day, batting 4-3, with five RBIs, leading his team's offense. Japan began to make a difference early. After threatening in the first episode, the offense exploded with 10 runs in the second inning, an attack that practically sentenced the game. Ohtani was key in that rally by hitting his home run with the bases loaded against starter Hao-Chun Cheng. The Japanese offensive didn't stop and added three more runs in the third inning against reliever Tzu-Chen Sha to extend the lead to 13-0. Meanwhile, Japanese opener Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Most Valuable Player of the last World Series, took the victory after pitching three hitless innings, with three strikeouts and two walks, before being relieved by Shoma Fujihira. The match ended in seven innings due to the mercy rule, which is applied in the tournament when a team maintains a lead of ten or more runs after the seventh inning. Japan, the current tournament champion, is considered one of the favorites to advance to the quarterfinals of the competition and fight again for the title in the final scheduled in Miami. In the next matchday of Group C, Chinese Taipei will face the Czech Republic, while Japan will face South Korea in search of their second victory of the championship.
