World Baseball Classic: Tetsuto Yamada's Two-Homer Game Fuels Japan to Victory
Two-time World Baseball Classic champions Japan take the lead in Pool E after rallying to victory over Cuba.
After tying the game three different times, Japan rallied in the eighth to beat Cuba 8-5. Thanks to the clutch hitting of Tetsuto Yamada, who went 3-for-4 with four runs and 3 RBI, Japan stands 2-0 in Pool E while Cuba is 0-2 and nearing elimination.
Victor Mesa nearly cleared the bases with an RBI single that scored two runs and put Cuba ahead 4-2 in the fourth.
After Nori Aoki drove in a run with a ground out, Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh tied the game 4-4 in the fifth.
Two innings after Seiji Kobayashi tied the game with a single in the sixth, Siichi Uchikawa hit a sacrifice fly that put Japan in front 6-5 in the eighth. Later in the inning, Tsutsugoh capped his fantastic night with a two-run homer that padded Japan's lead.
More from Call to the Pen
Cuba can still reach the semifinals, but they will need to defeat the Netherlands later today at 8:00 p.m. PST and improve to 1-2. If they can beat the Dutch and Israel falls to Japan on Wednesday, March 15, at 3:00 a.m. PST, then Cuba will be a part of a three-way tie for the runner-up spot.
If the scoring of both those games goes in their favor, Cuba will face either Israel or the Netherlands in a tiebreaker to determine the runner-up spot in Pool E.
