WBC Briefs: China Vs. Japan, Game 1 – Who's Looking Good?

The 2009 World Baseball Classic started with a lackluster 4-0 win by Japan over China. But every game has moments to savor and players to praise. Here are my impressions from watching the game on ESPN2:

The Chinese team is much improved from their showing in the 2006 WBC. Actually, a 4-0 score is a lot better than the 18-2 mercy killing by Japan three years ago. Although they lack size and power, these baseball newbies can make some plays in the field. Occasionally, their inexperience will show through.

Shortstop Ray Chang is their best defensive player, but for good reason – he’s an American. Raised in the Kansas City area, Chang played Double-A ball last year for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was involved in two tough defensive plays in this game.

With Japanese runners on second and third and the infield drawn in, Chang snagged a sharp one-hopper, lunging to his left, spinning around and throwing quickly to home plate to nab the surprised runner. However, Chang couldn’t handle a pop-up into short left field, after a long run. To be fair, the ball should have been caught by the left fielder Wang Chao, a converted pitcher. There’s that inexperience showing.

Catcher Zhang Zhenwang, signed by the New York Yankees in 2007 but who has yet to play in the minor leagues, blocked a number of balls in the dirt and impressed defensively. He was, however, pretty much a statue at the plate.

Pitchers Li Chenhao, Chen Junyi, Sun Guoqiang and Liu Kai (another Yankee signing) all danced with danger, walking eight batters, but limiting Japan to only five hits. Of these, Sun seemed the toughest to hit, with a deceptive submarine delivery and a good sinking fastball.

Offensively, the Chinese were mostly overmatched by Japanese pitching. Although he didn’t reach base, first baseman Chu Fujia has a nice, smooth swing and did challenge Ichiro Suzuki to make a fine running catch up against the right field fence. China never did get a runner past first base.

Japan, beginning their defense of the 2006 WBC crown, were underwhelming. As mentioned, they only managed 5 hits, one of them a two-run line smash over the left field fence by third baseman Shuichi Murata, who led the Japanese leagues last year with 46 homers, despite missing two weeks of the season while playing in the Olympics.

Shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima looked at the plate and in the field. Last season he batted .331 for the Seibu Lions, stroking 21 home runs and stealing 25 bases. Overall, Japan is very sound defensively at all positions.

The star of the day for the Japanese was starting pitcher Yu Darvish. Darvish, only 22 and already touted as one of the best pitchers in the world, allowed just a walk in four innings, while striking out three. He threw effortlessly, with a 92 mph fastball and sharp breaking pitches. His command seemed to be in mid-season form.

Japan will need to be more effective in their next game. They face the winner of tomorrow’s game between Korea and Taiwan (oops, the Chinese want us to call them Chinese Taipei). The Chinese will next face the loser of that game and will go home unless they manage to win, as they did once in the Olympics against Taiwan.

Check back tomorrow for more of my impressions of the WBC.