I am once again wondering whether anyone who says the WBC is some meaningless exhibition watched even a moment of the tournament. Last night’s semifinal was as riveting a baseball game as you will ever seen, a dynamic back-and-forth affair that saw Munetaka Murakami finally struck the decisive blow, a walk-off, two-run double to punch Japan’s ticket to the finals, tonight against the United States.
Semifinal #2: Japan (5-0) vs. Mexico (4-1)
Ru014dki Sasaki threw one bad pitch.
The 21 year old phenom struck out two of the first three batters he faced, threw two dozen fastballs over 100 miles per hour, and made Mexico look pretty silly through the first 3.