MLB · 1 hour ago

WBC Pool C: Undefeated Japan, Shohei Ohtani, and Korea Advance

SportsGrid Contributor Just Baseball

Host · Writer

It all came down to Monday’s game between South Korea and Australia.

Last week, Australia beat Chinese Taipei to kick off the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Then Chinese Taipei beat Korea. All three of them lost to Japan and bested Czechia. So, entering play on Monday, any of Australia, Korea, or Chinese Taipei could finish second in the pool, depending on what happened in Korea and Australia’s head-to-head matchup.

Australia and Korea were playing for their lives, and all Chinese Taipei could do was watch.

A victory would give Australia a 3-1 record in pool play and a trip to the quarterfinals. That was the simple half of the equation.

As for Korea, a win would only give them a 2-2 record, putting them in a tie with Australia and Chinese Taipei. So, the WBC’s tiebreaker rules would have to come into effect.

If Korea scored seven or fewer runs but won by less than five, Australia would still advance. If Korea scored at least eight but gave up three or more, Chinese Taipei would advance. The only way Korea could secure a spot in the quarterfinals was to hold Australia to no more than two runs and make sure they won by five or more.

In other words, neither team was just playing to win on Monday – their goals were more specific. Korea couldn’t let Australia score more than three. Australia couldn’t let Korea win by five.

What transpired was one of the most unusual nail-biters I’ve ever seen.

South Korea got off to a five-run lead thanks to a remarkable performance from Bo Gyeong Moon. The lefty batter hit a two-run home run in the second, an RBI double in the third, and an RBI single in the fifth, driving in four of Korea’s first five runs.

Baseball Reference defines a “blowout” as any game in which one team wins by five or more runs. I say this to underscore that a 5-0 ballgame heading into the bottom of the fifth generally isn’t considered a close contest.

Yet, for all intents and purposes, the 5-0 mark on the scoreboard really meant 1-0. It wasn’t until Korea scored run number five that they had any chance of advancing. Once they got that coveted run, it was still essential that they hold Australia to two and win by five.

Australia pulled to within four in the bottom of the fifth on a home run from Robbie Glendinning, but Korea got that run back an inning later when Do Yeong Kim singled one home.

Then, in the top of the eighth, Australia scored again on an RBI knock from Just Baseball’s No. 46 prospect, Travis Bazzana.

All of a sudden, it was do or die for Korea. Not only did they have three outs left to turn their four-run lead back into a five-run lead, but if they let one more Australian baserunner cross the plate, they were toast.

Of course, by now, we all know how it ended. Hae-Min Park scrambled home on a sac fly by Hyun Min Ahn in the top of the ninth, and Byeong Hyeon Jo kept Australia scoreless in the bottom of the frame. Team Korea swarmed the field in celebration.

Technically, Pool C closed out its schedule on Tuesday, when Japan beat Czechia 9-0. With all due respect to that contest – a fun rematch of last year’s Japan-Czechia faceoff, which saw an electrician strike out the best baseball player in the world – Pool C really wrapped up the day before.

Now, Team Japan and Team Korea will head to Miami for their next challenge. One of them will face the Dominican Republic. The other will face Venezuela. We don’t know who will get which opponent until the DR and Venezuela play one another in the final game of pool play on Wednesday evening. The winner of that matchup will play Korea in the quarterfinals, while the loser will take on Japan.

Meanwhile, another World Baseball Classic has officially come to a close for Team Australia, Team Chinese Taipei, and Team Czechia.

Team Japan First-Round Recap

Beat Chinese Taipei (13-0)
Beat Korea (8-6)
Beat Australia (4-3)
Beat Czechia (9-0)

The final result was exactly what we expected: a 4-0 finish and a trip to the quarterfinals. Yet, Samurai Japan didn’t look quite as dominant as one might have expected.

Their wins over Korea and Australia were close — close enough that only a few things would have had to have gone differently for one (or both) of those teams to pull off an upset victory. And while Japan stomped Chinese Taipei and Czechia, each of those wins involved a massive single-inning rally. For much of both games, Chinese Taipei and Czechia held a star-studded Japanese lineup scoreless.

Samurai Japan’s next opponent, whether it’s the DR or Venezuela, will be their toughest competition yet, and losing is no longer an option.

Standout Performers

Shohei Ohtani (DH): 5-for-9, 2 HR, 3 XBH, 6 RBI, 2.025 OPS
Masataka Yoshida (OF): 6-for-12, 2 HR, 3 XBH, 6 RBI, 1.654 OPS
Hiroto Takahashi (P): 1 GS, 4.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 K
Chihiro Sumida (P): 1 G, 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 7 K

Team Korea First-Round Recap

Beat Czechia (11-4)
Lost to Japan (8-6)
Lost to Chinese Taipei (5-4)
Beat Australia (7-2)

Team Korea needed this. After finishing third in the inaugural WBC in 2006 and runner-up in 2009, Korea failed to escape the first round in any of the next three tournaments.

Thankfully, Bo Gyeong Moon proved to be a secret weapon this year, almost single-handedly powering his country’s offense. If he keeps mashing and guys like Jung Hoo Lee and Hyun Min Ahn get hot, maybe the Koreans can establish themselves as legitimate WBC contenders once again.

Standout Performers

Bo Gyeong Moon (1B): 7-for-13, 2 HR, 4 XBH, 11 RBI, 1.779 OPS
Shay Whitcomb (3B): 3-for-12, 2 HR, 3 XBH, 3 RBI, 1.141 OPS
Hyeong Jun So (P): 2 G, 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 K

Team Australia First-Round Recap

Beat Chinese Taipei (3-0)
Beat Czechia (5-1)
Lost to Japan (4-3)
Lost to Korea (7-2)

The 2023 WBC was huge for Team Australia. Although they participated in every prior tournament, they had never before finished pool play with a winning record, and they had never before advanced past round one.

Unfortunately, this year’s Australian squad wasn’t able to recapture the magic of 2023. They beat Korea 8-7 that year, a victory that ultimately made all the difference in the pool.

One could argue that the fact that they came this close to advancing for a second straight WBC is still a win for Australian baseball. After all, they kept things close in their game against Japan, losing to last year’s champions by only one run. At the same time, there’s no doubt the team from down under was hoping for more than a consolation prize.

Standout Performers

Curtis Mead (3B): 5-for-14, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1.009 OPS
Alex Hall (DH): 4-for-15, 2 HR, 3 XBH, 2 RBI, 1.046 OPS
Jack O’Loughlin (P): 2 G, 6.1 IP, 0 ER, 5 K

Team Chinese Taipei First-Round Recap

Lost to Australia (3-0)
Lost to Japan (13-0)
Beat Czechia (14-0)
Beat Korea (5-4)

After an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Japan, Chinese Taipei bounced right back to blow out Czechia. Needless to say, those two teams don’t exactly represent the same level of competition. Nonetheless, it was surely a nice morale boost for Chinese Taipei to get a mercy-rule win the day after their mercy-rule loss.

Even more impressive, Chinese Taipei kept up the momentum in a close victory over Hyun Jin Ryu and Korea, keeping their hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals alive.

While those hopes were ultimately dashed, they can take solace in the fact that they avoided what happened in the 2023 WBC, when all five teams in their pool tied with two wins apiece, and Chinese Taipei finished last on a frustrating tiebreaker.

Standout Performers

Yu Chang (3B): 6-for-15, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 1.038 OPS
Stuart Fairchild (CF): 3-for-12, 2 HR, 6 RBI, 4 BB, 1.188 OPS
Jo-Hsi Hsu (P): 1 GS, 4.0 IP, 0 ER, 3 K

Team Czechia First-Round Recap

Lost to Korea (11-4)
Lost to Australia (5-1)
Lost to Chinese Taipei (14-0)
Lost to Japan (9-0)

The team from the Czech Republic is a perfect example of so much that’s great about WBC baseball. They don’t come to the tournament with any illusions of winning, but their team of semi-pro players still puts up a damn good fight.

Their performance this year wasn’t quite as exciting as last time, when they beat China and automatically qualified for the next WBC. But of course, Czechia didn’t have a team like China in their pool this year — and their showing was better than the final scores would have you think.

In particular, the underdogs made Japan work for their 4-0 finish in pool play. Yes, Japan already knew they’d won the pool by the time they played Czechia. And yes, the final score was 9-0. Still, the Czech team held the reigning champs scoreless until the eighth inning.

A lineup with names like Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto, and Masataka Yoshida couldn’t muster a run against Czechia for the first 7.1 innings. This is the World Baseball Classic, where a 7-2 win counts as a nail-biter, and a 9-0 thrashing can still represent a major accomplishment. I wouldn’t have it any other way.