Shohei Ohtani helped lead Japan to a win in the World Baseball Classic final on Tuesday night, and the two-way star had a great message for his team before the big game.
Ohtani gave his teammates a speech in which he essentially told them not to be star-struck by Team USA, which had a roster comprised of some of the best baseball players in the world. According to a translation, Ohtani told Japanese players to “stop admiring” Team USA because that is the only way to “surpass them.”
The message seemed to hit home. Japan defeated the U.S. 3-2 and became just the second team in World Baseball Classic history to not lose a game in the tournament, going a perfect 8-0.
Japan jumped out to a 3-1 lead, which narrowed to 3-2 after Yu Darvish allowed a solo home run to Kyle Schwarber in the 8th. Ohtani then came on to pitch for Japan in the 9th. He allowed a leadoff walk to Jeff McNeil before getting Mookie Betts to ground into a double play. That brought up Mike Trout for a dream matchup, and Ohtani got the best of his Los Angeles Angels teammate ( video here).
Ohtani further cemented himself as the best player in the world by closing out the win and going 1-for-3 with a walk. He hit .435 with a .606 on-base percentage and a .739 slugging percentage in the tournament. His speech showed that he was also a great leader throughout the WBC.
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