The United States win silver at the Tokyo Olympics
baseball gold medal for the first time, beating the United States 2-0 Saturday night behind Munetaka Murakami’s third-inning home run.
Murakami, at 21 the youngest player in Japan’s starting lineup but already a two-time All-Star in four seasons with the Central League’s Yakult Swallows, reached out for an 85.2 mph offspeed pitch with a 2-2 count from Nick Martinez . He drove the ball to the opposite field, over the 16-foot wall in left-center, and Martinez winced as it landed in the fourth row of the empty blue seats.
Kodai Senga, a 28-year-old right-hander on the Pacific League’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks viewed as a possible future MLB pitcher, followed with 98 mph heat in the sixth.Suguru Iwazaki, a 30-year-old lefty with the Central League’s Hanshin Tigers, relieved and struck out Boston prospect Triston Casas, retired Todd Frazier on a popup and got Eric Filia to ground into a forceout.
Former Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia was denied in his attempt to match the feat of his mentor, late Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who led the U.S. to a baseball gold medal in 2000. Japan stopped its major league season on July 17 and allowed top players to assemble for the Olympics. MLB executives scoffed at the concept of sending top players to the Olympics, saying it was impractical and uneconomical to stop the season and many GMs rejecting out of hand the thought of risking players to injury for any game other than with the club that pays their checks.
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