Power, small ball, clutch Suzuki carry Japan past Korea in seesaw tilt

TOKYO -- Seiya Suzuki missed Japan's 2023 World Baseball Classic title run with an oblique injury, with the team marking his absence by hanging his No. 51 jersey above the bench in the dugout.

In Japan's 8-6 win against Korea on Saturday at Tokyo Dome, the Cubs outfielder showed what Samurai Japan was missing in a game defined by its Major League participants.

• Box score

After starter Yusei Kikuchi gave up three runs in the top of the first inning, Suzuki quickly got two back in the bottom half with a home run to right field. It quickly changed the tenor of the game.

Two innings later, Japan unleashed a homer barrage to take its first lead of the game. One night after he hit a grand slam and drove in five in a single inning, Ohtani went off again. He tied the game with a blast -- telling his teammates to remain calm in the dugout and skipping the club’s new “matcha whisking” celebration.

“I was trying to send a message to the dugout, saying, ‘Hey, calm down, Let's go. The game is still tied,’” Ohtani said. “So, that's what it meant.”

Kikuchi then embraced Ohtani in the dugout -- the two Hanamaki Higashi High School students uniting for the national team.

“When we tied the score, it helped him, so I was pleased. Then Yusei told me, ‘Thank you for tying the game.’ The atmosphere in the dugout was so great,” Ohtani said.

One batter later, Suzuki came back up to the dish. On the first pitch he saw, he deposited it into the seats for his second home run of the game. Masataka Yoshida then came up and did the same. It’s an offensive strategy that manager Hirokazu Ibata is actually counting on in this tournament.

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“This is part of our game plan. Not only in the Tokyo pool, but also if we go to the Miami round, much of our scoring will be on home runs,” Ibata said. “I’m not going to change the lineup because of that.”

“We gave up four home runs through three innings, so that's something that's not expected from our game plan,” Korea manager Ji-Hyun Ryu deadpanned.

The lead didn’t last long, though. Facing reigning Sawamura Award winner Hiromi Itoh -- who struck out six batters in three innings -- it was another Major Leaguer (who also plays with Ohtani for the Dodgers) Hyeseong Kim, who went deep to knot the game at 5.

The score remained the same until the bottom of the seventh, when Japan started to play some old-school small ball. Japan loaded the bases with the help of three walks -- including an intentional pass to Ohtani -- sandwiched around a sacrifice bunt and a groundout. Suzuki then broke the tie by -- sorry, not hitting a home run -- but by working another walk.

“He's so great. His first jack and second jack, both of them were very nice,” Ohtani said. “His swing mechanics are great. Then he also took the walk in his fourth at-bat. He's great.”

Yoshida then lined a two-run single to center field to give Japan a little extra breathing room.

“That was huge to give us an insurance run,” Ibata said.

While Korea was able to scratch out one more run in the contest, the game went to Japan who are now tied (2-0) atop the Pool C standings with Australia, which it will face on Sunday (6 a.m. ET, FS1). Korea, now 1-1, will face Chinese Taipei (1-2) on Saturday (10 p.m. ET, FS1) with a chance to eliminate Chinese Taipei and give itself a chance to advance with a game against Australia on Monday.