Japan aims for third World Baseball Classic crown

Puerto Rico beat Japan 3 to 1. Congrats to Puerto Rico.

Yo soy boricuaaa pa que tu lo sepassssss. Puerto Rico wujuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

As the US commentator pointed out, Japans manager Koji Yamamotos "small baseball mentality" (i.e. bunt, bunt, bunt) cost them dearly when he assumed the Puerto Rican manager would employ the same tedious strategy. Alex Rios (who hit the 2-run homer) has never bunted in his life, so keeping Nomi on for one more batter because Yamamoto thought a bunt was coming proved fatal. Many times, you see even clean-up batters bunting in Japanese baseball and most no.2 batters are selected for their bunting ability. You know that if the lead-off batter gets on a bunt is coming about 95% of the time. So weak, so predictable, so boring.

"A Japanese squad powered by domestic league players and without Major League Baseball talent is in position to bring a third consecutive World Baseball Classic crown back home to Asia."

And the bragging point (even though they are merely domestic players) this morning is the same excuse this evening as to why they lost. 'Tis a shame, but it's nice to see someone else win once in a while, and Puerto Rico deserves it.

Billy got it right. I've never seen more bunting than when watching JN baseball.

Go big or go home.

Loki520: Why do you think the Japanese coaches got so scared when they saw what the Mexican team did to the Canadian players when one bunted?