The winner of the World Baseball Classic for the third time is Japan. The team around superstar Shohei Ohtani prevailed on Tuesday evening (local time) in Miami in the final of the unofficial world championship against defending champion USA with 3:2 and won the title again after 2006 and 2009. The World Baseball Classic, the first international tournament in which professionals from Major League Baseball (MLB) participate, was held for the fifth time.
Ohtani, who usually causes a sensation as a batter and pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels, also became the match winner for the Japanese. The 28-year-old threw the decisive strikeout against his Angels teammate Mike Trout and thus brought the victory to dry land. Japan became the first team to finish the tournament undefeated since the Dominican Republic in 2013. Ohtani, who batted at a 43.5 percent batting average throughout the tournament, had one home run, four doubles and eight runs-batted-in, was also named Most Valuable Player (MVP).
