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SPORTS Thursday 16 March 2017
Japan beats Israel 8-3 to reach championship round of WBC

JIM ARMSTRONG but could not match more
AP Sports Writer experienced baseball
TOKYO (AP) — Yoshitomo powers like Japan and the
Tsutsugo sparked a five- Netherlands in the second
run sixth inning with a solo round.
home run to lead Japan The Netherlands beat Is-
over Israel 8-3 Wednesday rael 12-2 in eight innings on
and into the championship Monday.
round of the World Base- Ike Davis broke the shutout
ball Classic. bid with a single in the top
With a perfect 6-0 record of the ninth that scored
through the first two rounds, Sam Fuld from second, and
two-time champion Ja- Ryan Lavarnway doubled
pan advances from Pool E in two more runs before
along with the Netherlands, Kazuhisa Makita retired the
which beat Cuba 14-1 at side in the ninth.
Tokyo Dome. Israel and Israel was made up almost
Cuba were eliminated. entirely of Jewish-Ameri-
Tsutsugo connected off Is- can players with major and
rael reliever Dylan Axelrod minor league experience.
with blast to deep center “We’re disappointed be-
field. Nobuhiro Matsuda cause we lost and won’t
doubled in a run to make be moving on,” Israel man-
it 2-0 and Seiji Kobayashi, ager Jerry Weinstein said.
Nori Aoki and Ryosuke Ki- “But we lost to two excel- Japan’s Nobuhiro Matsuda slides into third safely during the sixth inning of their second round
game against Israel at the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Wednesday, March
kuchi all added RBI hits to lent teams. Japan didn’t 15, 2017.
widen the lead. give anything away. They Associated Press
“Our pitchers were doing got timely hitting and really
a great job so I wanted to good pitching.” “We knew this was a need- out of reach. come back,” Cuba man-
do something to contribute In Wednesday’s first game, ed game so I was focused Netherlands starter Diego- ager Carlos Marti said.
in that situation,” Tsutsugo former major leaguer Wlad- on every at-bat,” Balen- mar Markwell picked up “Cuba is a very young
said. imir Balentien homered tien said. “I was happy to the win after holding Cuba team so this was a good
Seiichi Uchikawa hit a dou- twice for the Netherlands. get a chance to put us on to one run on four hits over experience and we have
ble down the third base Balentien, who plays in the board early with those six innings. to prepare for the future.”
line to drive in two more Japan for the Yakult Swal- home runs.” Cuba came to the WBC The March 20-22 champi-
runs in the eighth and Mat- lows, hit a three-run homer Yurendell Decaster drove with a young team and onship round will be held at
suda singled in the final run in the first inning and add- in two runs on a single to went 0-3 in the second Dodger Stadium. It consists
to complete the rout. ed a solo blast in the third right in the fourth when the round. of two semifinal games and
Israel won its first four as the Netherlands jumped Netherlands scored five “The Netherlands crushed the winner-take-all cham-
games of the tournament out to a 7-0 lead. more runs to put the game us and we were unable to pionship game.q

Pitching coach Gondo a big part of Japan’s success at WBC

JIM ARMSTRONG roki Kokubo put together rapidly deteriorated after to the wear and tear on his lately and Gondo is partly
AP Sports Writer his team of coaches for the his rookie season, likely due arm.Things have improved responsible.q
TOKYO (AP) — When Ja- WBC.
pan travels to Los Ange- In a tournament where
les for the championship mandatory pitch counts
round of the World Baseball can lead to more pitching
Classic, they’ll be joined by changes than normal, Ja-
78-year-old pitching coach pan has made good use of
Hiroshi Gondo. its bullpen in the absence
Two-time champion Japan of injured star pitcher
beat Israel 8-3 on Wednes- Shohei Otani and several
day to improve to 6-0 in the major leaguers like Masahi-
tournament. The Japanese ro Tanaka and Yu Darvish,
will play the second-place who opted to sit out the
team from Pool F on Tues- WBC.
day in the semifinals at Much of the credit goes
Dodger Stadium. to Gondo, who knows a
Following an abbreviated thing or two about how to
career as a pitcher for the use pitchers. In his rookie
Chunichi Dragons in the season in 1961, he made
1960s, Gondo began a 44 starts and compiled a
lengthy managerial career record of 35-19 in 429.1 in-
that included leading the nings pitched.
Yokohama BayStars to the Japan was known for no-
Japan Series champion- toriously excessive pitch- Japan’s pitching coach Hiroshi Gondo stands on the mound with pitcher Naoki Miyanishi during
ship in 1998. ing workloads back then. the seventh inning of their second round game against Israel at the World Baseball Classic at To-
He was a natural choice Gondo only pitched five kyo Dome in Tokyo, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. Associated Press
when Japan manager Hi- seasons and his numbers