Baseball: Samurai Japan gets torched by Dragons

Samurai Japan’s progress to the World Baseball Classic hit a speed bump Friday when the Chunichi Dragons proved too hot to handle in a 7-2 warm-up game defeat just six days before Japan’s first official game.

Manager Hideki Kuriyama’s team pitched very well most of the time, but the offense failed to click with runners on base.

“We did have our good points on offense, but we have to move forward in the belief that things will turn around by the time the real thing starts,” Kuriyama said.

The Dragons snapped a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with three hard-hit balls off Shosei Togo in the last of ...