Baseball: Sasaki, Japan bullpen lead way in rout of Australia

Sports

Roki Sasaki brought his speed, if not his best pitching game, and four relievers completed a six-hit shutout as Japan's national team defeated Australia 9-0 in their second World Baseball Classic warm-up game on Thursday. The one-sided win, combined with Wednesday's 8-1 victory, left Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama with even more questions about which of the players he brought to Sapporo Dome will make it to the WBC in March, when Japan will face Australia again in their first-round pool at Tokyo Dome. "There are many questions we need to resolve, but we could get some good games with just these...

Kyodo News

Kyodo News