Ohtani (again!) and Co. bash 3 homers in big 3rd vs. Korea

TOKYO -- There’s not many places for a pitcher to hide when facing Samurai Japan. The lineup features one Japanese slugger after another, each with the ability to put the ball over the fence. Facing its rival Korea on Saturday night, Japan showed off that power with three home runs in the third inning.

Seiya Suzuki got the show started with a two-run home run in the bottom of the first after Korea jumped to an early 3-0 lead. In the third, Shohei Ohtani came up to the plate with Japan trailing by one. Just as he did on Friday night, when he smashed a grand slam to set a World Baseball Classic record with five RBIs in a single inning, he came through again.

Korean starter Young Pyo Ko tried to throw three straight curves to Ohtani, but the last one was hung over the middle of the plate and Ohtani deposited it 408 feet to the right-center-field seats.

Perhaps not wanting to give Korea any extra fuel in the matchup, Ohtani gestured to his dugout to keep calm as he ran toward first. When he rounded third and came toward home, he also opted not to use the “matcha whisking” celebration the team has been using, instead continuing to tell his team to stay calm.

That was OK, though. The crowd would do more than enough cheering. One batter later, Suzuki came up, and on the first pitch he saw, he smashed his second home run of the game to give Japan the lead and chase Ko from the game.

Though Korea went with a new pitcher in Byeong Hyeon Jo, the outcome was the same. Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida -- who blasted a towering home run during the exhibition games in Osaka, Japan, earlier this week -- got another hanging curveball and smashed it out to right field.

While Japan manager Hirokazu Ibata may have asked for “10 to 20” matcha teas a game earlier in the week, he’ll be just fine with them skipping out on the celebration if there’s more of this to come.

The fireworks did continue, but on the other side, as Korea answered immediately. Hyeseong Kim -- Ohtani's Dodgers teammate -- slugged a two-run, game-tying home run in the fourth to continue the seesaw battle.