Written by Matt Snyder at CBSSports.com
The United States of America moves to its first ever World Baseball Classic final, by virtue of taking down two-time champion Japan in the semifinals on Tuesday night, 2-1. The final will be on Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT in Dodger Stadium vs. Puerto Rico, which is undefeated to this point.
Here are nine things to know from the USA victory:
1. USA fans again got a taste of the Japanese atmosphere
Japan won the event in both 2006 and 2009 and then advanced to AT&T Park in the 2013 semifinals. The Japanese fans travel well and get plenty of Japanese Americans to the games as well. They do things a bit differently than the USA fans or even the loud and extremely enthusiastic fans from Latin American countries.
They have bands. Said bands play certain songs during every Japanese at-bat, with each hitter being assigned a song at times.
I also heard the “Back to the Future” theme song a few times, which is all kinds of awesome.
2. It rained a lot
For at least the first five innings, it was raining in Dodger Stadium, which is a rarity. Sometimes it was pretty steady but it didn’t really let up until the sixth inning. It picked up on occasion the rest of the way as well. The grounds crew had to become involved a few times, notably around home plate and on the mound, obviously.
So this means the conditions were a bit tougher than usual, notably on hard groundballs where the ball would be picking up wetness on its way to the fielder. Ian Kinsler and Brandon Crawford uncharacteristically had trouble on one ball each.
Of course, this happens sometimes in Major League Baseball, and the players are more equipped for it.
In the Nippon Professional Baseball (Japan’s major league), most stadiums are domes with turf. For the most part, the outstanding Japan defense handled itself well.
Oh yeah, in related matters …
3. USA’s first run scored thanks to an error
I said “for the most part,” because USA’s first run was unearned. Christian Yelich hit a relatively hard — but not scorching or anything — grounder right at second baseman Ryosuke Kikuchi, and he booted it.
Bear in mind, this is a man who has four Golden Gloves (NPB’s version of the Gold Glove, obviously) in four seasons and is considered a defensive wizard. He committed only four errors in 836 chances last season (.995). The weather most certainly had a hand in this one.
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