World Baseball Classic recap: Honkbal returns, Netherlands claim first win

Action in the World Baseball Classic kicked off in full force on Monday night (and early Tuesday morning), and we’ve got everything you need to stay up to date. So let’s get started!

Netherlands 5, Korea 0
Is everyone ready for the return of Honkbal?! It doesn’t matter, because it’s here anyway. The Netherlands and their impressive infield stormed into WBC action on Monday night (Tuesday in Seoul), beating South Korea on their home soil. Five different Dutch pitchers kept Korea to six hits and zero runs, and the game was closed out by 7-foot-1 pitcher Loek van Mil. One of the biggest plays of the game came from Jurickson Profar, who hit a mammoth two-run homer in the first inning.

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This is a tough loss for Korea, who had been hoping to avenge their early first-round exit from 2013. At 0-2, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen this time. They’ve been able to muster just one run from 19 innings over two games, so their offense is definitely struggling. Even tougher? They’re losing at home, in front of home crowds. Hopefully they can muster a win before their time in the tournament is over.

Israel 15, Chinese Taipei 7
Oof. Israel, fresh from their upset victory against Korea, absolutely unloaded on Chinese Taipei. It was evident early that Chinese Taipei was in trouble, since their starting pitcher, Chun-Lin Kuo, couldn’t get out of the inning, and Israel put up four big runs on him. It didn’t really get much better from there.

Don’t misunderstand: it wasn’t a clown show for Chinese Taipei by any means. Their pitchers hurled scoreless frames in the middle innings, and collectively they walked very few players (just three all game). And Israel mostly got by on bloops and singles; of their 20 hits, just five were for extra bases — two doubles, one triple, and two homers. And only three of those extra-base hits scored runs (the two homers and one double). Chinese Taipei’s offense came roaring back in the later innings, showing that Israel isn’t invincible. But at that point, it wasn’t enough to make up such a huge deficit. Israel’s early (and often) scoring had done them in.

Japan 11, Cuba 6
Japan was playing on home soil, and they did not disappoint their enthusiastic fans who showed up in droves to watch their team play.

This one looks like a blowout, but it was actually pretty close in the middle innings. Japan put up a five-spot against Cuba in the fifth inning (thanks in part to a three-run homer from third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda), but Cuba roared back in the top of the seventh with three runs. So the score was a much tighter 7-4… for less than a half-inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Japan scored another two runs. Both teams would score another pair of runs before it was over, but Cuba just couldn’t catch up.

The star for Japan was Norichika Aoki, who doubled and made several fantastic, run-saving plays in center field. Over on the Cuban side, Yoelkis Cespedes, the brother of Yoenis Cespedes, notched three hits, including a double.

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Even though the game between Israel and Chinese Taipei wasn’t a clown show, there should probably be circus music accompanying this play. Pro tip: if you throw the ball to a base, you definitely want to make sure there’s someone there to catch it.

WHAT’S NEXT?
There are three games coming up, one on Tuesday night and two on Wednesday morning.

• China vs. Cuba (Pool B Game 2, Tokyo): Tuesday 3/7, 10pm ET, MLB Network and MLB.TV

• Chinese Taipei vs. The Netherlands (Pool A Game 4, Seoul): Wednesday 3/8, 4:30am ET, MLB.TV (MLB Network will show this game on tape delay at 8am ET)

• Japan vs. Australia (Pool Game 3, Tokyo): Wednesday 3/8, 5am ET, MLB Network, MLB.TV

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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher