Japan wins gold in baseball's return to Olympics; U.S. settles for silver

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Baseball returned to the Olympic program after an absence in the previous two Summer Games, largely based on Japan's affinity for the sport.

The sport's inclusion paid off for the host country.

Japan defeated the United States 2-0 on Saturday at Yokohama Baseball Stadium to win the country's first Olympic gold in baseball.

“I thought we could win if we played our game,” manager Atsunori Inaba said in Japanese after the game.

“Japanese strength in baseball will be shown to the world,” added Inaba, a former teammate of Shohei Ohtani.

Munataka Murakami's solo home run that barely cleared the tall center-field fence with one out in the third stood as the lone run of the game until an eighth-inning insurance run.

After the Japanese players poured out of the dugout and rushed the mound in celebration, they lined up along the third-base line, removed their caps and bowed to those in attendance before bowing toward the United States dugout. The U.S., led by manager Mike Scioscia, went onto the field for a handshake line.

“I don’t think they did anything we didn’t expect,” Scioscia said.

Scioscia, the former Los Angeles Angels manager, remains adamant about not becoming a MLB manager again. He hopes to remain involved with the game, perhaps in a role with USA Baseball, but he's unsure if it will be in the dugout.

U.S. starter Nick Martinez, who has pitched in Japan's professional league since 2018, fired six gutsy innings with seven strikeouts, five hits and one walk allowed to keep the U.S. in the ball game.

All tournament, the U.S. offense had done enough to support its pitching staff – which entered Saturday's contest with the best team ERA (2.18) in the field – but it came up empty on the competition's final day.

“It just wasn’t our day at the plate, no other way around it, no excuses. We didn’t have many opportunities with runners in scoring position with less than two outs,” said cleanup hitter Todd Frazier, who was 0-for-4 on the day. “But it’s been a great experience. I can’t say it enough.”

After an 11-year MLB career, Frazier also had to come to grips with the reality that this could have been the last baseball game he has ever played.

The Americans certainly had their chances, though, in three consecutive innings. In the fifth, Japan starter Masato Morishita allowed a two-out single to Nick Allen and hit nine-hole hitter Jack Lopez with his next pitch. That brought up Eddy Alvarez, the U.S. opening ceremony flag-bearer who entered Saturday already having made history by winning a medal at the Summer and Winter Olympics.

Alvarez fell behind 0-2 but battled back to work the count full. On the sixth pitch, Alvarez grounded out to shortstop, ending the United States’ best chance against Morishita.

Reliever Koudai Senga entered for the sixth and walked Tyler Austin to lead off the inning, then plunked Eric Filia with two outs. He fell behind U.S. left fielder Jamie Westbrook 3-0 before the count went full and Westbrook popped out in foul ground to the catcher.

Alvarez had another chance to tie the game in the seventh with Allen – who doubled and had three of his team's six hits – on third and two out, but he weakly grounded out to first.

“Their pitching style is a lot different than the U.S. But man, did their pitchers bring it today," Alvarez said. "They weren’t really missing any spots. And that’s when you do damage, but it didn’t seem like they were (missing). If they did make a mistake and we hit it hard, it would be right at them. Maybe if it was a series it would be a different thing, but this is a winner-takes-all situation. They just came out on top today but super happy and proud of how my team played today.”

Morishita, the 2020 Nippon Professional Baseball rookie of the year, switched speeds by a variance of 20 mph; his fastball maintained in the low-90s, while his 12-6 curveball kept U.S. hitters out in front. The second-long pause in the middle of his windup, just as he delivers to the ball to the plate, further messed with the batters’ timing.

“I thought if we scored one run, we could win,” Morishita, 23, said in Japanese. “That was the feeling I had.”

U.S. reliever Scott McGough, who coughed up a ninth-inning lead to Japan on Monday, entered for the eighth and Japan tagged him for another run on Masataka Yoshida's single to center that Jack Lopez threw away, which allowed Tetsudo Yamata to score.

Follow Chris Bumbaca on Twitter @BOOMbaca.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tokyo Olympics: U.S. baseball falls to Japan in gold-medal game