World Baseball Classic 2013 Results: Defending Champ Japan Off to a Strong Start

It's still early in the 2013 World Baseball Classic and Japan hasn't faced any great threats yet, but it's worth noting the defending champions have won their first two games of the tournament in impressive fashion.

Japan defeated China on Sunday, 5-2, after roaring back to dispatch Brazil on Saturday, 5-3.

On Saturday, Japan scored three runs in the eighth inning to dispose of WBC afterthought Brazil. Despite getting outhit nine to seven and committing an error, the small-ball-minded squad was able to scrap together some timely singles and sacrifices to emerge victorious.

On Sunday, Japan was able to piece together five singles, one double and six walks to defeat China. The defending champs had got off to a 5-0 lead by the time the fifth inning was over.

This is what Japan did in the 2009 WBC. The squad ranked fifth in average, sixth in on-base percentage and only registered a slugging percentage of .393 (with four home runs in nine games), but had 35 walks in the tournament (fourth-most) and a tournament-leading 11 stolen bases (via WorldBaseballClassic.com).

With that being said, Japan had 2009 WBC MVP Daisuke Matsuzaka on the roster that year, as well as right-hander Yu Darvish (who now plays for the Texas Rangers). That—combined with the absence of Ichiro Suzuki this year—has some thinking the defending champions will fall short in 2013.

Still, even though Japan has faced subpar teams thus far, it's worth noting the team has registered a 2.00 ERA and 0.78 WHIP while notching 23 strikeouts to only two walks. In 2009, tournament favorite USA scored a ho-hum four runs against Matsuzaka and company in the semifinals.

The Japanese may have a weaker squad overall this year, but they can't be taken lightly. Like Ichiro, they have ways of doing damage with their small-ball game and you can't ignore the fact that they won the last two WBCs.

Japan has proven in the WBC that it can sneak up on you. Before you know it, Japan is the tournament champion. Will history repeat itself?