World Baseball Classic 2017: Scores and Reaction from Tuesday Pool Play Results

The 2017 World Baseball Classic rolled on Tuesday with three games of group play across Pools A and B. The action featured the first appearance of the event for Japan, the 2006 and 2009 champions and one of the pre-tournament favorites.

Pool A games are being hosted at the Gocheok Sky Dome in South Korea. Pool B games are held at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Pool C, which includes the United States, and Pool D are both slated to kick off play Thursday evening.

Let's check out all of the key information from Tuesday's schedule, which will get updated through the conclusion of play. That's followed by a recap of the key storylines.

Tuesday's WBC Results

Pool	Matchup	Result/Time (ET)
A	South Korea vs. Netherlands	5-0 NED
B	Cuba vs. Japan	11-6 JPN
B	China vs. Cuba	6-0 CUBA

Netherlands 5, South Korea 0

Texas Rangers star Jurickson Profar blasted a two-run homer for the Netherlands in the first inning, and the team never looked back en route to a shutout victory over South Korea.

Randolph Oduber also homered for the Dutch side, which tallied 11 hits. Former MLB pitcher Rick van den Hurk, who currently plays for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan, tossed four scoreless innings to pick up the victory.

Meanwhile, South Korea once again couldn't translate its rallies into runs. The team went hitless in five at-bats with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. The Koreans went 1-for-8 with RISP and had nine runners left on base in their opener, a 2-1 loss Monday to Israel.

Starting pitcher Kyu Min Woo allowed six hits and three earned runs in 3.2 innings of work. Jonghyun Won also struggled in relief, giving up two earned runs in as many innings to allow the Netherlands to extend its lead.

Delia Enriquez‏ of Bronx Baseball Daily commented on the early WBC results:

JJ Cooper of Baseball America spotlighted South Korea's narrow path to advance:

Looking ahead, the Netherlands returns to action for a clash with Chinese Taipei on Wednesday at 4:30 a.m. ET. Taipei lost a 15-7 slugfest to Israel in its first game of the tournament. The Dutch also have a game Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET against group-leading Israel.

South Korea and Chinese Taipei will close out the initial phase of Pool A on Thursday at 4:30 a.m. ET. After that, a tiebreaker game may be needed Friday to determine which teams advance.

Japan 11, Cuba 6

Japan built a 7-1 lead through five innings and then withstood a late offensive surge from Cuba to pick up an impressive win in the battle between the traditional baseball powers.

Third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda led the way with four hits, including a home run, four runs batted in and three runs scored. Ryosuke Kikuchi, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo, Hayato Sakamoto and Seiji Kobayashi added two hits apiece for the Japanese club.

Starter Ayumu Ishikawa gave up just one run in four innings to secure the win. The right-hander stated afterward he still hoped to see improvement next time out, per Danny Knobler for MLB.com.

"It was a bit difficult for me to get adjusted to the strike zone, and I had a few bad pitches," he said. "I struggled with the location of off-speed pitches too. I'd like to do better next time."

Yoanni Yera took the loss for Cuba. He gave up three earned runs in three innings of work. He was far from alone in his struggles trying to contain the Japanese offense, though. All six Cuban pitchers who took the mound gave up at least one run.

Yoelkis Cespedes, the 19-year-old half-brother of New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, had three hits to lead the Cuban attack.

Andy Greenberg of Arizona Sports noted the terrific atmosphere in the Tokyo Dome:

Lou DiPietro‏ of the YES Network pointed out the wide-ranging impact of the event, with players halfway around the globe tuning in:

Japan moves into firm control of the race for the top spot in Pool B with the win. It will return to action Wednesday at 5 a.m. ET for a matchup with Australia.

On the flip side, Cuba is still a solid bet to advance to the next round, especially after the later victory against China.

Cuba 6, China 0

Cuba used excellent pitching to bounce back from the loss to Japan and shutout China in a convincing 6-0 victory.

Starter Vladimir Banos set the tone from the start with five scoreless innings. He struck out four and allowed just one hit, which proved to be China's only one of the entire game. The bullpen combination of Vladimir Garcia, Livan Moinelo and Miguel Lahera shut the door the rest of the way with plenty of run support from the offense.

China's Bruce Chen reached his pitch limit in just 2.2 shutout innings of work, which then gave the Cuba offense a chance to go to work against the bullpen. Chen was solid but also turned heads with his cleats, as Cespedes Family BBQ noticed:

Cespedes started the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.

A two-RBI triple from Roel Santos and RBI double from Alexander Ayala followed, giving Cuba four runs in the frame. That alone was more than enough considering the performance from the pitchers.

Santos provided some insurance in the sixth with a run, and Frank Morejon's RBI double in the seventh was the final run of the contest.

The World Baseball Classic shared the victors enjoying the contest from the dugout:

Cuba's next contest will come against Australia as it looks to carry the momentum over from Tuesday's latter performance. China will also face Australian in its next game.