BEIJING — U.S. skipper Davey Johnson got his starter in just long enough to get his arm loose. Japan manager Senichi Hoshino did the same. This game mattered for semifinal seedings and pride, nothing more. Pitchers for Japan and the United States put on an impressive show nonetheless. Brian Barden singled in the go-ahead run to break a scoreless tie in the 11th inning and the U.S. baseball team beat Japan 4-2 on Wednesday night to earn the third seed in Friday’s medal round and a rematch with defending champion Cuba. The Japanese will be No. 4. “It’s like when you clinch the division and know you’re going to be in the playoffs,” Johnson said. “This game didn’t mean a whole lot, except we get to play in the 6 o’clock game rather than the 10:30 game. Six o’clock feels more like a ballgame, and 10:30 feels more like a spring training game.” Barden’s single off Hitoki Iwase scored Jason Donald from second. International baseball’s new extra-innings rule calls for, beginning in the 11th inning, runners to start on first and second with teams able to start at any point in their batting order. “I used to be a pitcher myself,” Hoshino said. “It was my first experience with the extra-inning rule. I thought they would bunt. This was a mistake, and we learned a very good lesson today.” Nate Schierholtz and Matt Brown followed with RBI singles of their own, key insurance runs for the Americans. John Gall’s groundout brought in the other. Casey Weathers allowed consecutive two-out RBI singles to Atsunori Inaba and Hiroyuki Nakajima, then walked Shuichi Murata before getting pinch-hitter Shinnosuke Abe to pop up to end it with the winning run on first. The teams concluded preliminary play and Japan (4-3) will take on top-seeded South Korea (7-0) in Friday’s first game, then the Americans (5-2) will face Cuba (6-1) in the night contest. The teams have a scheduled rest day Thursday. “Cuba’s a very good team, and there’s a little history there,” U.S. reliever Jeff Stevens said. “We’re not looking at it that way (as getting them back). We’re just trying to get to the gold-medal game.” The Cubans beat the Americans 5-4 in 11 innings Friday in a game that saw Jayson Nix foul a ball off his left eye to start the final inning against burly Cuban reliever Pedro Lazo. Nix needed microsurgery to close the wound, then Matt LaPorta was plunked in the head Monday against China and suffered a mild concussion. Johnson hopes to have both players back Friday. “We might,” he said. “They took batting practice today.” Barden had drawn a one-out walk in the ninth from Kenshin Kawakami and stole second, then Brown walked one out later before Terry Tiffee grounded out. Hoshino opted not to hold back top pitching prospect Yu Darvish for the semifinals. Darvish, expected to be a major leaguer in a few years, allowed one hit in five scoreless innings, struck out six and didn’t walk a batter. The right-hander retired the first eight U.S. batters before No. 9 hitter Dexter Fowler hit a sharp single to right. Fowler also got the Americans’ next hit with a one-out single in the sixth off Masahiro Tanaka, his sixth straight plate appearance reaching base – with five hits and a walk. Fowler, who missed hitting for the cycle by a home run in Tuesday’s win over Taiwan, then grounded out in the eighth. Japan got the first baserunner of the game past first in the fifth when cleanup hitter Takahiro Arai singled leading off the inning and advanced a base on each of the next two outs, but Murata flied out to end the threat. A kooky thing happened in the sixth. After the third U.S. out, Matt Brown came to the plate and drew ball one before the Japanese manager and players realized it and told the umpires. Brown then headed back to the dugout. Japan, which won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, had a lively rooting section. Part of the crowd in the left-field seats was on its feet for much of the game singing, clapping and waving flags. The U.S. fans got into it in the late innings, cheering more emphatically and regularly. Trevor Cahill, a Double-A farmhand for the Oakland Athletics, faced the minimum through three and allowed only a leadoff walk in the first. Jeremy Cummings relieved to start the fourth, a move by Johnson to save Cahill’s arm for Saturday out of the bullpen if needed. Earlier Wednesday, Cuba pounded 20 hits, had a nine-run second inning and got a grand slam from Giorbis Duvergel in a 17-1 rout of China in a game that went only seven innings. South Korea defeated the Netherlands 10-0 in eight innings. “We can’t play against the uniform, we can’t play against the tricks,” Weathers said of the Cubans.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---