Hirata Bruno-Masaki did what all designated hitters are supposed to do.
He hit the ball, and knocked the Beijing Tigers out of contention at the World Baseball Classic.
Bruno-Masaki punched out three hits in five plate appearances and scored two runs for Toshiba-Japan in an 8-4 playoff win over the Tigers Friday afternoon at Citizen Field.
Toshiba wiped out a 1-0 Tigers' lead with a five-run explosion in the third inning. Masaya Isecki started it with a single to third base and eventually scored from third on a wild pitch from Meng Quingyuan. Masato Ohkawara's base hit delivered Bruno-Masaki, and catcher Yoshyuki Igawa followed that with a single that brought in Masaki Hattori and Ohkawara. All of the runs were charged to Li Longda, who took over from starter Meng Quingyuan to start the third inning.
"When we got five runs in the third inning that made the team relax a little bit," said Bruno-Masaki, through an interpreter. "Igawa hits well in the big games, so we were expecting that."
With Toshiba leading 6-2, Beijing made it interesting with two runs in the sixth. Yubing Jia hammered a Yudai Noda pitch for a single, Chao Wang doubled and Yang Yang brought them both home with a double.
Noda left the game after the sixth after giving up just four hits. That gave relievers Hayato Arakaki and Yuki Egarashi to shut down the Tigers order, which they did without allowing a hit. Japan added a couple of insurance runs in the late innings.
The win catapulted Japan into a sudden-death playoff encounter with Canada today at 11 a.m. Bruno-Masaki is hoping for a repeat of Wednesday's round-robin game, when Japan crushed Canada 14-3 in seven innings.
"I want it to be just like the last game where we got a big lead and we win big, but I don't think it will be like that," Bruno-Masaki said.
The winner will advance to to a semifinal game tonight at 7 against Chinese Taipei????????? for the right to move on to the championship game against Cuba ??? Sunday at 3 p.m.
