Japan vs. Cuba in WBC Final
After 16 teams fight for 38 games, only Japan and Cuba left, and the winner will be the first championship for World Baseball Classic.
Semifinal:
Cuba 3, Dominican Republic 1
CUBA - 000 000 300 -- 3 DOMINICAN REP - 000 001 000 -- 1
Behind an offense of players known primarily only in their native land, Cuba stunned a Dominican Republic squad made up of some of the most famous players in the world, 3-1, in the first game of the semifinals at PETCO Park on Saturday afternoon.
The Cuban National team is accustomed to winning. After all, this club is 22-2 in international play, dating back to 2001. First, it beat Venezuela. Next was Puerto Rico. And now, the Dominican Republic — which arguably was its best win, ever. Cuba silenced a ferocious lineup in front of a sellout crowd of 41,268 and a nationally televised audience of millions, and did it on U.S. soil, a rarity in its rich baseball history.
JAPAN - 000 000 510 -- 6 KOREA - 000 000 000 -- 0
Kosuke Fukudome came off the bench with one out in the seventh inning and poled a two-run pinch-hit homer into the right-field seats at PETCO Park off Kim, the beleaguered Byung-Hyun Kim. And suddenly, the Japanese are on their way to the World Baseball Classic finals and a matchup against Cuba for the inaugural championship on Monday at 9 p.m. ET.
After holding the opposition to eight runs in its first 60 innings during the World Baseball Classic, Korea succumbed to a five-run barrage in the seventh inning and dropped a rain-interrupted 6-0 decision to Japan before 42,639 at PETCO Park. The loss ended Korea’s six-game winning streak, and kept it from playing Cuba in Monday night’s championship game.
