Follow usThis is Japan's first title since 2009
Japan captured the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship on Tuesday night, taking down Team USA in a thriller. Shohei Ohtani closed the game on the mound, getting Mookie Betts to ground into a double play before striking out Mike Trout to win the title.
This is the third WBC championship for Japan and the country’s first since 2009.
This version of the WBC was originally supposed to be played in 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Action got started on Wednesday, March 8 (technically first pitch of the 2023 WBC opener in Taiwan took place at 11 p.m. ET on March 7), and there were a total of 47 games in the tournament.
