A home run shocked Japan, and young Chinese baseball returned to the World Series

The Chinese team hit a home run. (00:20)

Returning to the pinnacle stage of international baseball after five years, the Chinese men's baseball team hit a home run, allowing the world to see their determination and potential to dare to compete with the top teams.

On the evening of March 9, at the Tokyo Dome Stadium, Japan, the group stage of Group B of the 5th World Baseball Classic (hereinafter referred to as WBC) kicked off, and the Chinese baseball team challenged the host Japan team in the opening game, and finally lost 1-8.

But in this "debut" on the world stage, the young Chinese team proved its potential with a home run.

'This team is full of passion, energy and energy, the players are very studious, and they have improved in every game over the last few months. Dean Treno, the "famous coach of American baseball" who has just taken over the Chinese team, is full of confidence in this batch of Chinese players.

"I believe they will be the future of baseball in China, and they also have the ability to shock the world."

American baseball "Thousand Victory Coach" Dean Treno coaches the Chinese team.

Not an inch of land

The Chinese baseball team is actually a "regular" of WBC. As the world's highest level baseball tournament today, WBC is authorized by the World Baseball Federation and sponsored by Major League Baseball, and has been held every 4 years since it was first held in 2005, and its influence and importance are equivalent to the World Cup in football.

The Chinese team has participated in the first 4 WBC tournaments, including two top-12 finishes.

However, due to the impact of the epidemic, the WBC was suspended for many years. When the WBC officially announced its restart at the beginning of this year, there were already a large number of players in the qualified Chinese team who were "fresh faces", plus American coach Dean Treno, who had just taken over the Chinese team, this Chinese team can be regarded as a "strange team" on the world's top stage.

In contrast, hosts Japan have just won the Tokyo Olympics and are now ranked No. 1 in the world, and in order to regain the WBC championship, the team has recalled a number of MLB All-Star players, including Major League Baseball MVP player "Shohei Erkaku" Otani in the 2021 season.

Shohei Otani in the game.

The WBC opener sold out early – and more importantly, its attention and buzz continued from the announcement of the fixture until the official start of the match, and even before the match, there was a lot of off-field talk in the Japanese media.

According to Japanese media reports such as Tokyo Sports and Jiji News Agency, at the media meeting the day before the game, Chinese coach Dean angrily rebuked the Japanese media for distorting his joke into the meaning of "the Chinese team admits defeat before it plays".

The cause of this episode was that Chinese coach Dean was asked by local Japanese media at another press conference three days ago "who are the players in the Japanese team who need to watch out", and he joked -

"If possible, I hope that Shohei Otani will encounter a taxi or bus jam on the way to the stadium."

This joke actually comes from the 2021 season, when Shohei Otani, who joined the Los Angeles Angels, originally played as a starting pitcher, but was temporarily replaced due to traffic jams and was temporarily replaced for an hour late.

However, Dean's joke was misinterpreted by some Japanese media, describing it in the report as "the Chinese team is afraid of Shohei Otani and hopes that he can be accidentally blocked and unable to play", and even evolved into the "white flag theory" of "the Chinese team gives up before it starts".

The 75-year-old boss Dean obviously didn't want to lose before the game, so he went out of his way to explain and correct the Japanese media's claims, stressing at the last press conference an hour before the opener, "The Chinese players are ready, we will show our strength." ”

Japan men's head coach Morihoichi kicked off the match.

A home run to prove yourself

Judging from the "China-Japan matchup" in Group B of this WBC tournament, although there is a very huge gap in the ability of pitchers, the Chinese team has indeed played their spirit as coach Dean said.

At the beginning of the match, Japan's "chosen son" Shohei Otani taught China's young hitters a lesson with a high-speed ball in excess of 150 km/h — he solved the top three hitters in China with 11 balls, while China's starting pitcher was 19-year-old Wang Xiang.

In the drum noise of the 41,616 spectators at the scene, Wang Xiang exposed his lack of possession as soon as he came on the field, and sent four bad balls in a row to protect his opponent to base.

However, the Chinese team's defenders showed great concentration in the opening game, using a "double kill" to force the Japanese team to score only one point in the first game.

Dean encouraged the players.

In the second inning, when Wang Xiang once again shot a dangerous full-base situation, the old coach Dean quickly walked onto the court and rotated the pitchers, replacing the 21-year-old Wang with the only one on the court. It was this substitution of Coach Dean that allowed Shohei Otani's infield rolling earth to be blocked at first base, successfully resolving the crisis of full base.

In the following game, China's relay pitchers Wang Weiwei and Sun Hailong helped the team resolve many crises under the guidance of Coach Dean, but Shohei Otani, who had the world's top shooting ability, still hit a second base hit in the second half of the third inning, helping the two teammates run back to home plate and rewrite the score to 3-0.

The Chinese team played with momentum.

It was after this inning that Shohei Otani was replaced by Japan's relay pitcher, Shosei Togo – a substitution that became a turning point in the game.

In the sixth game, the Chinese team Liang Pei swung the bat vigorously, hit the ball thrown by Shosei Togo 90 meters away and sent it to the stands, and at that moment, the Tokyo Dome suddenly fell silent, and the cheers of the Chinese bench could be heard from the center and back rows of the audience.

Liang Pei's home run was the first home run of the game, after several top hitters in the center of the Japanese team failed to complete a home run.

"Liang Pei's hit was brilliant, and after getting this point, I thought we had a chance to beat Japan." Coach Dean also mentioned the home run when he replayed the game after the game.

Unfortunately, this group of young Chinese players still lacks experience in international competitions, and against the more mature Japanese team, the Chinese players have not been able to continue their good form to the end, "We did not continue to take points later. ”

After the Chinese team lost another 1 point in the seventh game, the opponent hit consecutive home runs in the eighth game, losing 4 points in a row, and the game lost suspense...

But the first home run hit by the Chinese team in this game has shocked the international baseball world, and even Shohei Otani affirmed the performance of the Chinese team in an interview with the Japanese media after the game.

"This Chinese team played very well, they pushed us very hard at one point, and they kept the game interesting."

Coach Dean mentored the players live.

The future has the opportunity to "shock the world"

No matter how much "politeness and politeness" Shohei Otani had in his post-game assessment, the young Chinese team did prove their potential with this solid home run.

More importantly, because the schedule set by the WBC is very tight, Coach Dean of the Chinese team has retained some of the team's strength through substitutions——

From the perspective of the starting lineup, the Chinese team did not exhaust the "strongest team", and with the obvious disparity in strength between the two sides, Coach Dean left a hand for the later games of the group stage.

On the other hand, Coach Dean used a "wheel war" against the center line of the Japanese team in the arrangement of pitchers, in order to allow every young pitcher to adapt to the intensity and pressure of the international game as soon as possible while retaining physical strength.

"There is not only one WBC competition this time, and we have also made a reasonable plan to prepare for the upcoming competition."

'I really like the way the players are on the pitch, they basically carry out the tasks assigned by the coach and I think they execute well in the big game.

For this Chinese team, which has had little experience in international competitions in the past three years, the final result of 1-8 is not unacceptable - you know, on the highest stage of the WBC, China once lost to Japan by 16 points in the first quarter, and in the next three WBC competitions, the Chinese team lost by 3 points at least once.

Foreign coaches give guidance to Chinese players.

"There's a big gap between our pitchers and our opponents and we need to play more aggressive pitches." Coach Dean repeatedly emphasized pitchers and mistakes when talking about the team's continued improvement,

"I hope the Chinese team can play clean and without mistakes, but we obviously had too many mistakes in this game."

In Dean's view, the Chinese team has indeed been improving since he took over, but this group of young people must also see their own shortcomings - if these obvious shortcomings can be addressed, this group of Chinese players has the ability to play more difficult to solve with many strong teams, including Japan.

"This group of Chinese players is still very young, they are always improving, whether it is hitting the ball or whatever, they are getting better. But without winning the game, these improvements become meaningless. ”

Coach Dean admits that China's line can compete with Japan's, and the gap is not so large, which is why he believes that the Chinese team has the ability to "shock the world" after a few months of leading the team.

"I believe they will be the future of baseball in China, and they also have the ability to shock the world."