2021 Olympics: Japan defeats USA Baseball to capture gold medal


Japan scored two runs to defeat the United States and capture the gold medal in baseball at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. USA Baseball secured silver with the loss and the Dominican Republic won bronze.

The U.S. was kept scoreless by Japan’s Masato Morishita, Koudai Senga, Hiromi Itoh and Suguru Iwazaki. It had six hits to Japan’s eight but wasn’t able to turn them into runs, leaving nine players on base throughout the game.

Through six innings, Nick Martinez gave up a home run on five hits and struck out seven, while Scott McGough allowed the other run in the eighth inning as Tetsuto Yamada scored on a throwing error by center field Jack Lopez.

Baseball hasn’t appeared in the Olympics since 2008, when South Korea took home the gold and the U.S. won bronze in Beijing. The U.S. captured its sole gold medal in baseball at the 2000 Sydney Olympics with a defeat over Cuba and has another bronze from 1996 (Atlanta).

Japan has two bronze medals (1992, 2004) and one silver (1996).

(Photo: Kazuhiro Fujihara / AFP via Getty Images)

GO DEEPER

Team USA baseball’s lovable Olympics story ends with silver, while Japan gets its coveted gold

What went wrong for Team USA

Joe Vardon, staff writer: Japanese pitching was too much. The Americans pushed a runner to second base three times, all with two outs. Eddy Alvarez grounded out twice in those spots and Jamie Westbrook popped out to the catcher. Team USA, after bashing the ball for the whole tournament, finished with just six hits. Triston Casas and Todd Frazier, hitting in the middle of the order, went 0-for-8 with three strikeouts.

How big was this baseball gold for Japan?

Vardon: It was a mob scene on the mound. At one point the Japanese team was tossing one of its own — couldn’t tell if it was a player or manager — up into the air. I counted five throws. A baseball gold means everything to this baseball-crazed country. They shut down their pro league for the Olympics and sent a team of All-Stars.

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Read More: 2021 Olympics: Japan defeats USA Baseball to capture gold medal 2021-08-07 07:00:00

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