Japan beat the United States in the final, 2-0, and earned their first-ever Olympic baseball gold medal.
FULL GAME REPORT BOX SCORE
Japan's third baseman Munetaka Murakami broke the tie when he homered to the opposite field off starter Nick Martinez in the bottom of the third.
"I'm so happy we won a gold medal," commented Murakami, "and I'm so proud of being a member of Samurai Japan. Our starter was on top of the game, so when I stepped into the box in the third, I thought one run could be enough to win."
"The home run was just a nice piece of hitting by Murakami," said Martinez. "[Catcher] Mark [Kolozsvary] and I were on the same page. I threw a changeup exactly where he set up his mitt. He hit a home run on my best pitch; there's nothing different I could have done."
Japan's starter Masato Morishita went five innings allowing only three hits.
"When the manager told me that I was going to start today, I thought immediately I had to give everything I had from the very first pitch," commented Morishita. "I knew there were a lot of great arms ready behind me."
Koudai Senga, Hiromi Itoh, Suguru Iwazaki and Ryoji Kuribayashi shut out the US through the rest of the game.
"Morishita had a great start, and Murakami put us ahead," said Japan's manager Atsunori Inaba. "Every pitcher coming out of the bullpen made a great effort, and we played solid defence."
"They came after us, and they got us tonight. It was just not our night at the plate," said USA third baseman Todd Frazier. "We didn't have many scoring opportunities, and you're not going to win games that way. No excuse."
"Japan is a terrific team. They played well, and we didn't expect anything different," commented US manager Mike Scioscia. "They are well-coached, very disciplined. I congratulate Japan on the gold medal, but I don't want to congratulate Japan only. I tip my cap to every team we faced. Every day we had the challenges of game seven. All six teams represented baseball in the best way possible. I want to congratulate my players also. They represented the US in the best way possible. I'm very proud of them."
Scioscia added: "It's an incredible oversight not having baseball included as a permanent sport in the Summer Olympics."
"I was named manager of Samurai Japan in 2017," said on a different note Inaba, "and I've been focused on an Olympic gold medal since. I saw a lot of players during these four years. In the end, I selected 24. They have been wonderful. They accomplished our goal. We won thanks to the help of a lot of people. Now I want the younger players to return to their club and share what they learned during this tournament. We want to set up a culture of international baseball for the future."
He added: "Winning the Olympics on home soil is very special. This takes away the frustration of the 2008 Games. That was my only experience as a player in the Olympics."
Inaba also said: "[second baseman] Ryosuke Kikuchi put the gold medal at my neck in the locker room. I watched it, and I saw that the colour is wonderful. It's also very heavy. Winning gold showed the world the strength of Japanese baseball, and this success will bring more people to baseball in Japan also."
"I don't like when they call our style of baseball 'small ball', Stealing bases, bunting, executing hit and runs require skills that are typical of Japanese baseball," concluded Inaba.
