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Live from Angel Stadium! This game should be live on ESPN Deportes.
The fate of everyone in the Anaheim Region hangs in the balance with this game.
If Mexico wins, Korea is automatically in the semifinals and Mexico and USA have a winner-take-all game on Thursday.
If Japan wins, the Korea-Japan game could just be a preview of a Saturday semifinal if the score is right (or wrong depending upon your perspective). Fans of the USA would then be rooting for Korea to beat Japan.
Japan will start hard-throwing Daisuke Matsuzaka and Mexico will likely start Esteban Loiaza. Both pitchers gave up just one run in their first starts, against China and Canada respectively.
The Japanese are still smarting from their controversial 4-3 loss to the USA Sunday. The Japanese filed a formal protest over umpire Bob Davidson's call on a tagup play on a fly ball. The protest is symbolic though as the play was a judgment call and not subject to reversal by the WBC organizers.
Mexico lost on Sunday to Korea, 2-1, as they fell victim to the bat of Seong-Yeop Lee (who leads the tournament with five homers) and some excellent pitching and fielding. Mexico managed 10 runs against South Africa and nine against Canada, but were shut out by the USA and scored just one run against Korea.
Japan scored 32 runs against Taiwan and China, but have managed just five against teams with Major League pitchers in Korea and the USA.
So, here's your handy guide on who to root for:
If you want Japan to advance, root for Japan
If you want Mexico to advacnce, root for Mexico
If you want Korea to advance, root for Mexico
If you want the USA to advance, root for Mexico.
There you have it, 3 out of 4 baseball fans will be pulling for Mexico today in an afternoon affair in Anaheim. Presumably the crowd will predominantly be pro-Mexico, so the Japanese should have their hands full.
FINAL SCORE Japan 6, Mexico 1
WP -- Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-0)
LP -- Esteban Loaiza (1-1)
HRs -- Tomoya Satozaki (his 1st), Miguel Ojeda (his 1st)
Matsuzaka and company throttle Mexico on just three hits. Japan picks up 12 hits and manages six runs despite giving numerous outs on the basepaths and being shaky in the field.
Japan evens its record at 1-1 and sets up a showdown with Korea tomorrow night in Anaheim at 7 pm PT.
If Korea wins, it moves on to the semis. If Japan wins and scores fewer than six runs and Korea scores fewer than seven runs, then both Korea and Japan advance. In other words, a maximum score of 5-4 Japan sends both Asian teams to semis.
If Japan scores 6 runs, then note how many of the runs are earned because that would be the next tiebreaker.
Then would come batting average.
Remember also that an extra inning game would benefit both Korea and Japan and hurt the USA as the tiebreaker is runs allowed per inning played on defense. Also, if a game goes 14 innings, it is declared a tie. A tie would send Korea to the semis. The USA would have to beat Mexico to advance.
If Japan beats Korea and scores 7 or more runs, the USA would advance to the semis with a win over Mexico Thursday.
Ichiro RF
Nishioka 2B
Fukudome CF
Matsunaka DH
Iwamura 3B
Tamura LF
Ogasawara 1B
Satozaki C
Kawasaki SS
Matsuzaka P
Mexico:
Luis C. Garcia CF
Cantu 2B
Castilla 3B
Durazo DH
Luis A Garcia LF
Gonzalez 1B
Ojeda C
Valenzuela RF
Castro SS
Loaiza P
If not, I'm more perplexed why he was given a look over the dozen or so players that are on the Japanese team.
And there was another bunt-into-double-play?
I was definitely listening to the wrong game.
I would hate to have wasted $50 on a good seat for nothing.
Mexico is playing excellent defense today.
Guts!
Someone living in the Bay Area can't afford to upset his Japanese or Mexican neighbors.
Which batman theme? From the movies or the television show?
The Nelson Riddle version.
changes the meaning slightly. You might have been wondering what my point was, and still, I couldn't answer you.
Coming into the WBC, Taiwan had shorter odds for winning than Korea or Cuba.
1) If Korea beats Japan, and the US beats Mexico, Korea and US advance.
2) If Korea beats Japan, and Mexico beats the US, then Korea and Japan advance.
3) If Japan beats Korea and the score is low (5-4 or less), Korea and Japan advance and the Mexico-US game has no implications.
4) If Japan beats Korea and the score is high, then the US has to beat Mexico in order to be in the mix at all; in addition, it depends on how many runs the US allows.
Is that correct?
Mostly correct.
In scenario (2) I think the US would still have a slight chance. If Korea beats Japan, and the US loses 1-0, that would leave Mexico, US, and Japan all at 1-2, and Japan and the US would each have allowed 4 runs in the games among those 3 teams (assuming tonights score holds up.
In scenario (4) the runs the US allows versus Mexico wouldn't matter, only runs among US/Korea/Japan. They would need Japan to score at least 7.
If Japan holds on to its 5-1 lead. You will have these standings.
Korea 2-0
USA 1-1
Japan 1-1
Mexico 0-2
Then you have these options:
a) Korea and USA win. Korea and USA advnace
b) Korea and Mexico win. Three-way tie for second spot at 1-2. Runs allowed tiebreaker comes into play
c) Japan and USA win. Three way tie for first at 2-1. Runs allowed tiebreaker comes into play.
d) Japan and Mexico win. Korea and Japan advance.
That seems like a lousy tiebreaker to me. What if the US had lost 14-4? All 14 runs wouldn't count?
I suppose this was put in so one team didn't get its stats skewed by having a weak team in its pool. Note that the stat is runs allowed, not runs scored, so running up the score is discouraged.
Other weirdness:
In scenario 2, if the US wins and Japan pounds Korea, the end effect of the bad call in the US/Japan game could be that Korea loses out on advancing.
And I think that if this game ends 5-1 Mexico is eliminated, but if they score one more run they are still alive.
One team shouldn't get its stats skewed by having a weak team in its pool, but neither should a team in the advancement picture get helped by having a terrible game against the better team discounted. That makes no sense to me.
Or would that likely send me to jail?
Granted, soccer usually doesn't have as much scoring as baseball.
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