World Baseball Classic 2013 Results: Biggest Surprises from Early Pool Play

The World Baseball Classic kicked off late on Friday night (Eastern time), and already we have seen some surprises early on during pool play.

Two-time winner Japan returned to action in the hopes of getting on the right track en route to a potential three-peat, and it did so by squeaking out a win over Brazil.

The Netherlands got its 2013 WBC off to a great start with an upset victory over the 2009 WBC runner-up, South Korea.

Chinese Taipei got some help from a former Major League Baseball ace as it defeated Australia.

Let's take a look at some of the more unexpected events from the first three games.

Japan's Late Comeback (Japan 5, Brazil 3)

It wasn't a surprise that Japan won this game, but rather how it won it.

Brazil is nobody's favorite to win this tournament, so defeating Japan should have been a tall order. However, the Brazilians gave the Japanese a run for their money by recovering from a 2-1 deficit early on to take a 3-2 lead after five innings.

It was a lead that would last all the way until the top of the eighth inning when Japan's bats finally woke up.

The Japanese were down by a run before they tied the score, but then Japan's injured captain, Shinnosuke Abe, stepped up to the plate and ripped a ball up the middle that was knocked down by Brazil's second baseman. Although the ball was kept in the infield, it was still good enough to score the go-ahead run.

Nobuhiro Matsuda's RBI single gave Japan some insurance, and that was all it needed to secure the win. Brazil might not have been able to complete the upset, but the fact that the Brazilians came as close as they did was quite the shock.

Netherlands' Shutout of South Korea (Netherlands 5, South Korea 0)

In the 2009 WBC, South Korea drove in and scored more runs than any other team in the tournament. So, naturally the Koreans came out and continued that success in their tournament opener, right?

Wrong. Instead, the Netherlands came out and pitched its tail off en route to a shutout of Korea's high-powered offense. The Dutch also tacked on five runs to seal the deal in their shutout victory.

Left-hander Diegomar Markwell started the game for the Netherlands and pitched four solid innings. Three other pitchers contributed to the four-hit shutout of the Koreans, who also committed an astounding four errors in the loss.

The last thing the Koreans wanted to do was lose their first game of the tourney to stack the deck in pool play. But, hats off to the Netherlands which pulled off an incredible upset in stunning fashion in its first game.

Chien-Ming Wang's Gem (Chinese Taipei 4, Australia 1)

No pitcher in the MLB has had a worse run of luck than Wang in recent years. After winning 19 games in two straight seasons for the New York Yankees in 2006 and 2007, Wang has dealt with injuries that have sidetracked his once-promising career.

But those problems were forgotten in Wang's first start of the WBC as he went on to pitch a gem against Australia.

Wang pitched six innings of scoreless baseball with two strikeouts and didn't surrender a single walk to pick up the win. Chinese Taipei's offense was able to score four runs over the first five innings, which was more than enough to support Wang's stellar effort.

Granted, it wasn't against a great team, but Wang was able to maintain control of Australia's lineup and he looked dominant in the process.