So the second World Baseball Classic has come to an end and once again Japan has won as Ichiro's tenth inning two-run single provided the difference in the championship game. For the second time, Mr. WBC Daisuke Matsuzaka won all three of his starts and was named tournament MVP. In the end, the tournament confirmed that not only are the Japanese better at manufacturing cars and bringing about the future killer robot apocalypse, but they are also better than anyone at baseball. And the US kind of sucks at all of these things.
Round 2 - Pool 1: Japan, Korea, Cuba, Mexico
Japan won the second round pool by beating the Cubans 6-0 behind Matsuzaka, then losing to the Koreans 4-1, then shutting out Cuba again 5-0 and finally beating Korea by a 6-2 score. The Koreans advanced to the semi-finals by drubbing Mexico 8-2 in their first game and winning one of their Japan games. The Cubans beat Mexico 7-4 but failed to score against the Japanese in two tries, leaving Comrade Fidel to complain about how Cubans never swing at the first pitch and they got lumped in the same pool as the two best teams in the tournament.
Round 2 - Pool 2: Venezuela, USA, Puerto Rico, Netherlands
As in the first round, Venezuela won their pool over the United States. Both teams got an easy game against the lucky honkbalers of the Netherlands, finally dispatching them from the tournament. This highlighted some of the unfairness of the double-elimination tournament: Puerto Rico beats the US 11-1 by mercy rule and are rewarded with a game against King Felix Hernandez and Venezuela while the US gets the Netherlands. After Puerto Rico is shut out by Venezuela, they take on the US again and this time the 'murkns pull off a ninth-inning rally to eliminate Puerto Rico. I guess counting on journeymen like JC Romero and Fernando Cabrera to close a big game was asking for trouble. After their lucky escape against Puerto Rico, the US got beaten by Venezuela again 10-6, leaving the Venezuelans with a 2-1 edge for the tournament.
Final Round: Japan, Korea, Venezuela, United States
The US was eliminated by Japan and Mr. WBC by a 9-4 margin. The US ended up with a 4-4 record in the tournament. Venezuela was soundly beaten 10-2 by Korea, but they finished with a 6-2 record in the tournament. With their finals loss to Japan, Korea went 6-3, losing all of their games to Japan. Japan, on the other hand, went 7-2 losing both games to Korea.
We'll see what happens in the next Classic, slated for 2013, provided we haven't been nuked to the verge of extinction by our household appliances.
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