World No. 1 Japan tonight won the Tokyo 2020 Olympic baseball gold medal with a 2-0 win over No. 4 USA, behind a shutout from the pitching staff and a solo home run by Munetaka Murakami. This is the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Japan, after claiming silver in Atlanta 1996, and bronze in Barcelona 1992 and Athens 2004. Japan became the fourth nation to win an Olympic gold medal, joining Cuba (1992, 1996, 2004), USA (2000) and Korea (2008).
Both starters had a strong outing at Yokohama Baseball Stadium, in front of a good crowd made of volunteers, other sports' athletes and journalists. Masato Morishita and Nick Martinez engaged in an intense pitching duel, that kept a low score.
With one out in the bottom of the third, Japan scored the first run of the game. With two strikes in the count, third baseman Munetaka Murakami belted an opposite-field home run and gave Samurai Japan the lead in the game. It was only the second hit allowed by US starter Martinez.
One inning later Japan loaded the bases with one out, but Martinez gout out of the inning unharmed. Yuki Yanagita grounded to third base, and Todd Frazier forced the runner at home plate for the second out of the inning, and then Ryosuke Kikuchi was struck out on a third-strike check swing for the last out.
Morishita pitched five complete scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five. He was pulled out after 81 pitches and was credited with the win.
He was replaced by Koudai Senga, who got into some trouble after walking Tyler Austin and ht Erick Filia with a pitch, but the forced Jamie Westbrook to a popup fly to catcher, in fould territory.
In the top of the seventh, USA again put a runner on scoring position. Nick Allen hit a one-out double off Hiromi Itho -- who replaced Senga to pitch the inning -- putting the potential tying run on second base. But back to back grounders to the right side of the infield by Jack Lopez and Eddy Alvarez ended the inning.
In the top of the eighth USA again put a runner on with Tyler Austin hitting a leadoff single to left field. Lef-thanded pitcher Suguru Iwazaki replaced Itoh in the mound and retired Triston Casas, Todd Frazier and Filia in line to hold the 1-0 lead.
Martinez went six innings, allowing five hits and one run while striking out seven, and Ryan Ryder pitched a scoreless seventh.
Scott McGough took the ball in the eighth, and Tetsuto Yamada received him with a ledoff single to right field. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, and Masataka Yoshida singled to center field. Yamada was stopped at third, but the US catcher Mark Kolozsvary couldn’t catch the wild throw allowing Yamada to resume his sprint and score the security run.
With a two-run lead, Ryoji Kuribayashi entered the game and retired the first two outs of the inning. And even though Nick Allen singled to right field, the right-hander finished the game with a grounder to second base.
United States collected their fourth baseball medal at the Olympic Games. They won gold in Sydney 2000, and bronze in Atlanta 1996 and Beijing 2008. USA finished fourth in 1992 and did not qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games.
Earlier today, Dominican Republic earned the bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 baseball competition.
