Philadelphia Phillies star shortstop Turner hit the pitch again for his fifth home run of the tournament and fourth in the knockout round, putting the United States ahead 1-0 in the second inning. With his five homers, Turner tied the all-time mark for a single tournament of its kind, which he now shares with South Korea’s Seung-Yeop Lee since 2006.
However, immediately afterwards, at the close of that chapter, slugger Murakami, the man who left the Mexicans lying the day before, hit a four-cornered shot to the second level from right field to even the score 1-1.
Japan loaded the bases after the home run with just one out and Lars Nootbaar in the batter’s box, manager Mark DeRosa decided to pull Merrill Kelly for left-handed reliever Aaron Loup (Angels), who allowed the second run on a fielder’s choice to inner box.
In the fourth inning, reliever Kyle Freeland also allowed Okamoto’s long home run to left center field and the Japanese ninth went ahead 3-1.
The fire extinguisher Freeland hung the zero in the fifth despite issuing a walk by dominating Nootbaar (fly), the dangerous Ohtani (groundout to first), who was designated hitter and pitched the fire extinguisher in the ninth, and Yoshiba also grounded out .
Japan then continued to dominate as reliever Hiromi Itoh retired Turner, catcher JT Realmuto and Cedric Mullins 1-2-3 for the Stars and Stripes’ fourth straight shutout.
The Japanese ninth threatened again in the sixth after two outs when reliever Jason Adam lost the strike zone and gave up two walks and a wild pitch that loaded the bases, but ultimately got Nootbaar to fly out to right.
In the seventh, the so-called lucky inning, the United States put two men on without out when pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil walked and Mookie Betts singled, but firebreaker Taisei Ota reached in and lined Mike Trout to right and Paul Goldschmidt on a groundout for a double play and the locals thus received their fifth consecutive zero.