Shohei Ohtani homered for the second straight day and Seiya Suzuki went deep twice as defending champion Japan beat South Korea 8-6 on Saturday night at Tokyo and improved to 2-0 at the World Baseball Classic.
Suzuki drove in four runs and Masataka Yoshida homered and had three RBIs for the Samurai Warriors, who overcame a 3-0, first-inning deficit.
A day after hitting a grand slam in a 13-0 win over Taiwan, Ohtani hit a tying home run on a hanging curve from Young Pyo Ko in the third.
Suzuki hit a two-run homer in the second. Two batters after Ohtani's drive, Suzuki chased Ko by homering for a 4-3 lead. Yoshida homered on reliever Byeong Hyeon Jo's second pitch.
Hyeseong Kim's two-run homer against Hiromi Ito tied the score in the fourth for South Korea (1-1).
Suzuki put Japan ahead for good at 6-5 when he drew a bases-loaded walk from Young Kyu Kim in a three-run seventh that included Yoshida's two-run single.
Ju Won Kim cut South Korea's deficit with an RBI single off Yuki Matsumoto in the eighth before Hyeseong Kim stranded the bases loaded when he struck out against Yuki Matsumoto.
Winner Atsuki Taneichi struck out the side in the seventh, and Taisei Ota got three straight outs on seven pitches for the save.
Japan and Australia are 2-0 in Group C and meet Sunday as the favorites to advance to the quarterfinals.
New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye was at the game, a day after Timothée Chalamet and pop singer Bad Bunny attended.
Stuart Fairchild, whose mother is from Taiwan, hit a second-inning grand slam off Jan Novak for a quick six-run lead.
Taiwan set a WBC record with seven steals and improved to 1-2 in a game cut to seven innings by a mercy rule. The slam was the third of the tournament, one shy of the WBC record.
The Czechs dropped to 0-3 in their second WBC and are 1-6 in two tournaments, with a win over China in 2023.
Taiwan went ahead in the first on a throwing error by catcher Martin Cervenka on a double steal, and and an RBI single Yu Chang, who had three hits and four RBIs.
Winner Chen Zhong-Ao Zhuang struck out four in 2 2/3 innings. Novak took the loss, allowing six runs, five hits and three walks in 2 2/3 innings.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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