Tonight Team Japan defeated Team USA to be crowned the 2023 World Baseball Classic Champions! With a final score of 3-2, Japan now has bragging rights for the next 4 years.
The baseball gods were looking after fans tonight, allowing Mike Trout to face off his Angels’ teammate Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the 9th with the game on the line. Unfortunately for Trout, Shohei came out victorious in the game and in the matchup.
The World Baseball Classic was one of the best yet, with more stars from more countries coming together to represent their countries. Team USA was stacked top to bottom on the offensive side, where the pitching staff wasn’t much to write home about, however they put up enough runs to reach the championship game. Where Team Japan was led by Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish on the bump, with Munetaka Murakami – Nippon League’s #1 hitter – and Ohtani at the plate as well.
While there were other exciting teams for baseball fans around the world to get behind (Dominican Republic’s all-star lineup, Puerto Rico’s fan favorites, Great Britains feel good story, etc.), the biggest story leading into the WBC Championship was teammates and arguably the two best players on the planet were facing off.
Overall, the World Baseball Classic was a great success and hopefully continued to grow the game around the world and will allow for those super stars who didn’t compete for their countries this year (calling you out Aaron Judge) to realize what they missed out on and bring them in for the next WBC.
Till Next Time,
Trevor
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